Worth - Hamper.

Worth – Hamper – Aussaat – CD – 2023 – Aussaat23

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White Centipede Noise Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8nrprR6ERs

1.    Pomander and Globular Glass.

2.    Black Oleoresin Motif on Teenaged Lucifer.

3.    Penetralia.

4.    Refraction Poison (Mirrored by Presage).

5.    Necrotechnology.

Worth is a USA based project that has been releasing since 2014. The creator of this project was also responsible for Weak Sisters, a project that goes back to 2006 and was active until 2011. Other projects include Other People’s Children, 3 Headed Monster and Experiments in American Music. He has been making Harsh Noise since he was 15 years old. There have been extensive interviews recently in Special Interests Magazine and White Centipede Noise Podcast.

I remember playing this to check it out as I was totally new to Worth’s work when Aussaat sent me this to review. Even by Harsh Noise standards and my familiarity with the genre, I found this to be very Harsh, way beyond what I am used to. Playing Pomander and Globular Glass I am impressed by how harsh this is. I am, I recently realised way ignorant of Japanese Noise that I read about and this being an important development, I wonder if it is as harsh as this? I know there is a slight stream of consciousness thing happening here, but I am having a year 0 moment with Hamper. This seems like digital noise and metal abuse combined to make attack, the approach is, to be amongst the most extreme that I have heard.

Swotting up on the project and artist prior to review, Stabat Mors was mentioned in Special Interests, that is another project I discovered recently as Steve Underwood mentioned I should check them out. I obtained a lot of recordings and have been blown away. Listening there are tones of similar bleakness spread across the work, not in a cloney way, just an undertone that is there, Black Oleoresin Motif on Teenaged Lucifer seems to resonate that undertone. The shift from the Harshness of the previous track to pure bleakness is impressive, even more so as the violent sound returns like a war and the kicks in with aggressive explosions of noise. The noise sounds vocal, a vocal in torment, the other noises range from savage to disturbingly playful.

Bleak landscapes of sound return on Penetralia, this hisses and grinds slowly. Drilling noise takes over, forming a wall of blast, thicker, deep elements then rush in and build the sound up. Thick, churning distortion begins to splatter everywhere and dominate the sound completely, it feels like you are staring face first at the Gates of Mordor, the sound is immense. The work takes a massive shift as other blasts of noise take over and the work accelerates into a bombastic hyperdrive. As the work nearly faulters out and crashes, this furthers a hasty rebuild of sound to continue the high paced noise collision. When the work splutters to single toned drones and whistling feedback, the elements play off each other, as if in conversation until the thicker depths of sound try to return to speed the track to its end.

Steady paced wall distortion and feedback combine with each element flaring alongside the other. Sharper sounds radiate urgency and cut into this, Vocal noise and shrieking feedback take over, this is the sound of Refraction Poison (Mirrored by Presage). I like the frequent shifts the noise makes as if to race through different territories, roaring through a mental landscape at high speed.

Feedbacks and drones take turns to pipe up, distortion and deep drones kick in to build chaos to the track gradually. I like the deep dominating drone that goes off, this would usually be used behind a dense array of noise, but with only a sprinkling of sounds on it, it resonates beautifully. As the sound roars, it is only for short times so other sounds can poke in, it is like muscles flexing and loosening continually. Necrotechnology has skilled control of a set of well curated sounds, the control over the sound is very prominent on the finale. The die-off towards the end is magnificent.

Noise is a personal thing; we all have different definitions of which artists are great. To be completely honest the magazines and podcasts were right Worth; I stand converted to Worth. This is the strongest album from 2023 that I have heard so far.

Army of One, no cliques, no falsehoods, only myself – the struggle is real.  2023.