I think a & b side differ drastically. I had warmed up with The Rita / Dog Holocaust split tape, so those bands had already set up mood for some "wall noise", although this was, due live recording, much more standard harsh noise assault from both. But anyways, they didn't prepare you for what XXXX does.
First side feel like two utterly saturated layers of.. radio noise? When one says "nothing happens", it's true, yet also untrue. After few minutes of minimalism, slowly fades in another layer of minimalism. It's the static hiss of tape & radio, nearly sine wave type radio noise vibrating on top. No crunch, no crackles. No power, no aggression, no "ambient"... Just ultra minimalism with utterly damaged and lo-fi sounds. And I liked it. To push standard pedal distortion over everything would have turned it probably to poor mans Werewolf Jerusalem. But luckily they didn't jump exactly to the core of wall noise, but favor to lo-fi minimalism. Transitions, if you can call them that, are atrociously slow. Think of the fade-out of the A-side. It makes Shift sound like grindcore. Seriously, are we talking about 5 minutes fade out? Some projects do releases as long as XXXX uses for fade.
B-side has much more heavier and bass drenched sound, although composition-wise (side long minimalism) it's the same. B-side makes me think of Silence of Vacuum 1st tape, which also operates on contrast of relatively soft bassy rumbles and high pitched tone.
Most certainly not for everyday listening, yet in context of some sort of conceptual noise art, I feel it has actually quite a lot to offer. And sound of A-side could probably appeal to those who have like for example Xenophobic Ejaculation materials?
