V/A "Arson" CS (Team Boro Tapes, 2017) I'm sure many reading already have this, but since I'm late to the game and digging what Team Boro does, gonna review it anyway. I'll start by saying I find it very refreshing that the label has found a way to apply a nicely violent and taboo theme without relying on the usual perversity, narcoterrorism, or political dog-whistling (not that I have any real objection to any of that). And what better than arson for a tape that's bound to be primarily harsh noise?
Side A: First up is Tied Hands, who usually do a sort of all-over-the-place mixture of noise, field recordings and "experimental" if I'm not mistaken. Here, we get a sort of tinny and "small" sounding take on HN that is pleasantly sandy/gritty (track concerns a maniac cop turned spree killer). Next is VMS Elit with a crunchy, brittle HN piece that doesn't skimp on ringing high-end; should appeal to fans similar stuff like Quack Quack/Milos Olympus. Following that is Heinz Hopf, with whom I'm kind of underwhelmed as I must admit I generally like the principals' solo efforts much, much more. As usual, things are so saturated as to compress the sense of space I feel their tracks would generally do better to retain. Nice screeching high end of course, but there is a reason I'm partial to Johannson, Nystrand, and Anderson on their own. Onto a contribution from Schakalens Bror – feeling dumb for not having looked into this project earlier as I'm really enjoying the emphasis on texture over volume here: broken, very detailed, acoustic-emphasis kind of stuff; amazing work – not so much Harsh Noise as just noise. Next up is Factory Farming with yet another piece whose sample I can't make out due to the language barrier – oh well, I'm really liking the semi-rhythmic Slogun-clone PE approach; excellent static texture and perhaps the longest piece so far. After that, Legless blasts in with his fairly usual speaker-filling, high-presence decayed roaring HN, has a certain Richard Ramirez-type feel to it, not a bad thing in this case (and great background alarm throbbing oscillations). Lastly, we get Death Dealer doing, well, more HN but with a layered and dynamic (yet still blown-out, saturated, and compressed) take on HN despite still being no-fi as hell. Nice cuts/shifts and a tasty machine-whirring tone as backbone make this piece one of my favorites. Weird pitch-shifted singing sample bleeding through underneath is effectively eerie.
Side B: Kicks off with People's Person taking a more spacious, high-mid approach with an amazing "container reverb" before the avalanche of crunch rains down. Disturbing "moaning" tone underneath, excellent layering and timing for this piece. Second entry is Current Worming whose brand of harsh noise + industrial tape muck is on display with a barreling, cavernous track that sounds as if the reverb was emphasized due to over-saturation. Just the right amount of buzzing low-key rhythmic grime to make the track recognizable as who was responsible for it (although you could mistake it for Dead Body Love). I would have bought the tape for this submission alone but of course knew the others would match up. After that, Friendly Face's (who get the award for best track title, "Zippo") cascading flamethrower HN is hard to distinguish from Dealer and Hopf from the previous side but delivers some seriously amazing feedback spraying out along with the blasting mid-range molten asphalt which cools to one thin static line in concluding. Implicit Ruin, next, have a super-primitive take on industrial with a hammering rhythm, one-two high-end noise wave as melody, and bursts of wet synth fluttering in occasionally. Vocals are enraged and of course heavily flanged. Oddly, when the vocals start, the metal percussion shifts to sort of random pinging – I can't help but like this sort of wacky take on PE, which crescendos into primitive harsh noise cut-up with great reverberation. The next piece, whom I'll assume is Ü Golem with a quiet, sputtering crackle wall piece with a flattened bass flowing underneath – the most tape-decayed out of a number of projects whose main component seems to be cassette gain and over-saturation. Another one of my favorite pieces for the entire comp, as I really enjoy the somewhat "thinner" HNW style of whichever project this is, Vast Glory, and certain tracks by The Rita. The next track is yet another intense wall of static but with a sort of "cosmic" or esoteric feel due to the almost-melodic tonal synth drone in background along with the foreground WH-style high-end flutter. Most likely Urban Bushmen, something of an idiosyncratic, refreshing approach for a project with such a great name. Finally, we have a piece from Arkhe, which as 90% of the pieces before it, relies on a linear approach and static grime, droning away consistently much like the previous project (and sounding quite different from the Arkhe on other releases I own in doing so). Not the best material for that project and not an amazing closing track for a compilation but what can you do?
As a closing note, I'll use a term I normally hate and say this comp is really well "curated" as far as track length and order – doesn't feel as if any project got short shrift or too much leeway with unduly long tracks, either. I can think of some projects that would've felt at home here but perhaps would've just been more of the same, so the economical and efficient choice of C66 is great. Neither side feels like the 33 minutes which comprise it, both moving quickly and staying engaging. Where's Bloated Slutbag when you need him?
Mark Vernon "Orphaned Works" CS (Research Laboratories, 2019) Another great collection from the current god of tape archaeology. Using similar found-sound materials as his Lend An Ear and Remnant Kings releases, Vernon here again evokes incredible emotion and atmosphere in what amounts to a diverse collection of relatively short pieces. We get of course detailed clanks and clunks amidst the sound of all manner of interior spaces along with fragments of instructional tapes, dictations, and anonymous thrift-store home recordings (somebody turned 16 on Friday, October 13th 1989, if you're the superstitious type) among much more. Overall has an ethereal, haunted character as complimented by the 4AD-like cover art/layout. More composed than collaged, they differ from Lend An Ear while retaining a similar intimate feel. The emphasis on structure at times veers toward his work in the duo Vernon & Burns. One of the better details is the use of hyper-processed voice wizardry, not unlike Valerio Triccoli or "The Floor Above" by Mercury Hall. Vernon's added acoustic work is of course also absolutely gorgeous and spectral. Has a distinct (by chance only, mind you!) HNAS/Heemann/Ultra vibe at times. Criminally-small edition which I understand is nearly sold-out, so visit Mark's YouTube channel to stream it:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCle7IUOlgIRqFOOLBTDS9gADuncan Harrison "Life Is Not a Succession of Major Events" CS (Research Laboratories, 2019) A genuinely challenging and off-putting experimental work from an artist I greatly admire. Discovering Duncan's work for myself, I was at first blown away by the incredible detail and variation, everything worked and reworked to perfect execution. Though the latter is still the case, the former not as much, with recent works having a more deliberate sense of unity, even minimalism. This is most so here, with "Life Is Not..." comprising of high-gain, loud blown-out cuts from what sounds like almost accidental or incidental field recordings. Side A has a sort of numbing repetition (often like life itself) using clunky looping edits with some layered voice snippet interjections. Infinitely approaching zero would be the most apt abstract description, I think. On Side B, we have drawings from the same pool of source recordings, with a more varied, cut-up/collaged style, emphasizing an amazing use of syllabic voice edits. Here, the experience is more akin to walking through the lengthy subways of Boston while moving forward over a long distance. I suspect there are also other details aside from the field recordings mentioned but they are merely complimentary sheen to the main component. Totally immersive listening yet throroughly no-entertainment dismal Brit masochism. For fans of: Jeph Jerman, The Haters, Euronet.
Active Denial s/t CS (Cheap Food Records, 2017) Quirky Brit PE which, as far as I can tell, avoids the usual sex murder and questionable politics in favor of a more, I don't know, personal, obscure, or esoteric approach. Esoteric in the more general sense of the word than implying connotations of mysticism, as here the requisite spite is of course present as PE mostly should be. In a way, it sort of has the bleak romanticism of lo-fi black metal, just without the instruments. Thin, primitive synth electronics go from droning to static to bi-tonal sub-rhythmic over six tracks on one side, most of which bleed together to a degree. The vocal performance, present only on some tracks, gives an impression of a very young PB doing vocals in a fictitious, alternate-reality demo version of Total Sex or Birthdeath Experience. So minimal as to be not remarkably memorable but good stuff; a few shades better than the underwhelming, minimal, quiet "PE" coming out of the US like Pleasure Island, Alba Cell and so on. Fans of Forza Albino, Menacing '84/Roases, and Intersp3c!es 3rotica (a one-off PE project from Moral Defeat label out of Denmark which should have recorded more material). I hope to see more from this project simply as I'm curious what it'd sound like.
