Spiteful Womb - Interior Castle

 

Spiteful Womb – Interior Castle – LP – Cipher Productions - 2023 – (sic150)

https://spitefulwomb.bandcamp.com/

http://www.iheartnoise.com/cipherproductions/

https://cipherproductions.storenvy.com/

1.    First Mansion.

2.    Second Mansion.

3.    Third Mansion.

4.    Fourth Mansion.

5.    Fifth Mansion.

6.    Sixth Mansion.

7.    Seventh Mansion.

 

I’ve been listening to Spiteful Womb for ages. I own a few releases on tape, a bunch of downloads, but I have never reviewed the project on here - it is time to rectify that.

Spiteful Womb is Nora Egloff. The debut release was Postpenitent in 2014, there have been many releases since then, but Interior Castle is the debut vinyl LP by Spiteful Womb. The album comes on heavy vinyl, it has a colour sleeve with inserts.

Side One - Flies buzz and sounds click with a low under drone, sounds go off, it is hard to gauge what is going to happen, this causes immediate tension to the listener; it feels like fragments of memories from the past floating around a space. Buried lyrics flow through dense atmospheres, the noises fill the space, the drones are pushed forwards more so the sound has a thickness that is being continually compressed to give off tension, this forces the different sounds together to become a new form. It is like when you become someone else in a dream or a side of yourself that you aren’t aware of. I like the shift in the third mansion, keyboards melody and drones form the main sound. There is a delicacy to the sound, a minimalism and very successful combination of the different elements. Third Mansion is a break away from the noise and an impressive burst of musicianship across the Interior Castle – that isn’t to detract from the other interiors, but this sudden shift hits the listener.

Side Two – Texture builds within the sound until deep radiating synths pulsate across the sound to make way for the vocal to curse across the work. This has a Power Electronics urgency that heightens the darkness of the work, it is as if the work has taken a step forward at the listener to get in their face. The Fifth Mansion drops back into hostile subconscious territory. Inaudible vocals that play out in the background, high pitched synthesizer sounds wail over the work and the fluidity of the work makes it feel as if the sounds are being pumped through the body – this has a physicality to it that is very prevalent in the work. The sound begins to accelerate and become nosier, falling into PE territory again. The last two mansions descend into dream-like ambient territory that returns partly to the feel of the third mansion and leads us to the end of the album's journey.

I have read Spiteful Womb interviews, where the inner self and obsessions becoming the work is discussed. I feel Interior Castle achieves this and is a perfect representation of Spiteful Womb as a project. The images on the cover, inserts, sparse labelling on the heavy vinyl make for a beautiful, well-presented object. The sound is like a nightmare with fleeting moments of beauty, consistent depth and a sharp attention to detail. I have always liked the work, but this, to me, is Spiteful Womb’s best release so far.

Army of One, 2023.