Ritual Chair Overview.

Ritual Chair – Brock Turner (Download, 2018) – Ashamed – (Download, Cassette, 2019).

https://ritualchair.bandcamp.com/

https://houseofruthinc.org/

A noise project based out of Pomona, CA. An ex-sorority girl who didn’t fit in, a girl who is trying to piece together how to move on through PTSD and depression.  Taken from Ritual Chair Facebook page.

I discovered Ritual Chair through a recommendation of her tape Ashamed on Facebook. This led me to the Bandcamp of the project that has a mass of Ritual Chair recordings to play and download, which lead me to the Brock Turner recording amongst others that she’s done.

Brock Turner – 2018. What’s effective in this recording is samples from the news coverage of the Brock Turner’s rape case are layered over noise. 20 minutes of action is the term Turner’s Father used in his reference for his son to the judge, that got him a reduced sentence of 6 months of which he only three months. The entire recording focusses on how Turner’s 20 Minutes of Action virtually ruined someone’s life, yet the defence turned this round claiming the incident ruined the rest of Turner’s life and his dreams rather than that of the victim? The use of noise throughout, creates tension and anxiety over the samples which emphasise the horror and effects of rape culture, white male privilege, Frat culture and flaws in the justice system.

The use of noise mocks and emphasises the words on the recording, the noise is the presence of the creator of Ritual Chair throughout. This highlights the hypocrisy and real-life horror of what happened. It demonstrates impressive use of Death Industrial noise; the drones are powerful. The infected hiss says plenty, it is a blade that rips open the law or society’s hypocrisy where rape is concerned and it is as hard hitting and effective as noise can get, this is a brilliant recording.

 The two titles of this years Ashamed cassette release are Rape and Assault. They are recordings of the artist (I assume) detailing two said events that happened in her life. Prior to this the narrative/vocals were tied in heavily with the noise to the point where it couldn’t easily be made out. On this the recording the narrative is dominant. The details of the Assault are steady and slightly distorted through crackling hiss. The horror of the events builds up gradually and details the grim sexism and sexual assault that happens in some people’s lives. It highlights the culture of guilt reversal.

Rape again uses narrative and no noise, it is entirely reliant on Ritual Chair’s spoken word. It highlights Rape through intoxication, blurred persuasion and the taking a condom off during sex without permission. The recording creates horror through description of real life events, it isn’t a character created, but a real person’s trauma and pain. The narrator questions herself, his actions, explains the aftermath, hopes for his death and so do I.

The direct nature of these and many recordings on the Ritual Chair Bandcamp are powerful and very personal. They highlight the results of the horror of some people and their actions. The use of noise on these two recordings is fairly minimal, it can be a lot busier on other recordings and vocals can be layered into the noise too. Here everything is precise and often well considered. Looking at the project’s Facebook, the live shows are well presented, punishing, intense rituals and they differ greatly each time. On one show a massive crescendo of noise is overtaken by dialogue, Ritual Chair comes from behind the equipment desk and gets right up to the audience. My main criticism is that leaving this project to the realms of Band Camp is like leaving something to the mercy of MySpace, I hope there will be more physical releases over time. The more I investigate this project, the more I’m blown away, is all I can say.

Choppy Noodles 2019.

Blood of Chhinnamastika.

Blood of Chhinnamastika – The Promise of Delusion - Cassette – Fusty Cunt – 2018 – FUC202.

http://fustycunttapes.blogspot.com/

https://bloodofchhinnamastika.bandcamp.com/

1.       Kreem.

2.       Master.

3.       Old Beliefs. 

4.       Hum.

5.       I Am No Self.

Blood of Chhinnamastika is an anonymous California based noise project that has done three releases throughout 2018 on Fusty Cunt and The Pet Goat Records. I don’t know if the project comes from another unit, or this is a first-time artist. The Promise of Delusion is a five-track cassette and their latest release.

Tortured, screeching sounds and vocal noises come in from the distance to introduce the cassette, which is an immediate hellish nightmare. The pulsating electronics of Master throb repetitively, to break up into a vortex of noise that is cut into with sharp noise before vocal chaos erupts. The vocals are an incoherent noise that blasts away. I like how the electronics keep dying off and faltering suddenly only to burst back with more vigour. The faltering increases to become a key component, the vocal noise is impressive; I’d like to see how this act copes on a live front. Old Beliefs demonstrates impressive, choppy, Harsh Noise. This builds into a massive noise assault, sounds are jacked, choppy and the work continually cuts itself up. Where as Master had a more occultist /Blackened feel, this is more ‘Fuck yeah!’ type noise that gets more beastly as it progresses and erupts to an end.

Hum falls right in with the violence of earlier tracks, there is a sense of esoteric noise to the background noises as chaotic contrasts of noise overlay it. Like earlier tracks (Master) this does dramatically keep dying off to allow the noises to reconfigure themselves and erupt. This eventually dies off into minimal squeal. I am no Self is very choppy, with deep Harsh Wall crackle that is continually broken up by a choir of noises, this shifts to use repetition, raging vocal noise and urgent noise to become something else entirely. This is the most violent display on The Promise of Delusion, delivering a big finale.

Promise of Delusion continues the tradition of American choppy noise, whilst maintaining an esoteric, occasionally blackened feel. It varies itself well, becoming impressively harsh at times. The work shifts rapidly throughout, cutting everything up as it just manages to hold all its ideas at once, allowing for a wider identity to the project. Good release.

Choppy Noodles 2019.