ANTIchildLEAGUE - Infect Your Gut, Infect Your Thoughts.

ANTIchildLEAGUE – Infect Your Gut Infect Your Thoughts. 2018. Cassette. Bacteria Field. Bacteria Field 061.

 Track Listing.

A1. Infect Your Gut.

A2. Breath in Breath Out.

A3. Infect Your Thoughts.

A4. Resilience.

B1. Spineless Class War.

B2. Your Truth Won’t Make Me Free.

B3. Human Symbolism.

B4. Resilience (Baby Rats Mix).

I discovered the work of ANTIchildLEAGUE years ago via a blog. By then the project had done a demo, batch of singles and it’s first CD album. I’ve been a fan ever since and done a round up of the whole discography here there and everywhere. I liked the first demo a lot, the singles were great, and the album showed a lot of development. The eventual trilogy of albums was strong: The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost.

What’s followed over the last three years is even better -a batch of Cassettes – Holy Spirit, Bruises and Bites (split w Cronaca Nera) a split with The Rita and this album Infect Your Gut, Infect Your Thoughts. Throughout these recordings, the project has begun to mutate and form into something a lot nastier. It is as if a label says “Hi Gaya we want to release a cassette of your work, can you do something for us?” and Gaya says “Oh, cassette, brilliant, I’ll go even more apeshit than I do on CD, make my vocals into raw noise and I can really lose my shit big time!”

That’s exactly what’s happened, one of the angriest, most tortured, torturous ACL releases yet. It has traditional industrial elements that serve as the base for the horrid vocals and noise to kick in. The use of noise as urgency is stronger and more alarming throughout the album. There are times when the tracks seem to go on too long, however this technique makes the repetition and noise more punishing as if forcing the work to do its work better – making it work harder until it is exhausted and finally ready to die. There are bits of spoken more coherent dialogue, but it’s the abstraction of voice where the voice is strongest. You can hear ACL straining at its limits as a project across Infect; this adds manic tension.

There was recently a gig in New York, what was it like? Was it as good as this? Seeing acts like this is so hard and rare in the UK, it’s like a release when you do. Performances or Shows become urgent, explosive actions – violent acting out. If it doesn’t work to this effect, it tends to serve as an excuse to go home early. That’s what makes Power Electronics so taboo here in the UK, so underground and still unique. So, part of this review is a call to action.

Along with Hellworm and The RITA split this is the strongest ACL work to date.

Choppy Noodles 2018.

A Day at the Facebook Groups, review assault #1

PowerElectronics/ Death Industrial/ Harsh Noise/ Dark Ambient. 29/9/18

I’ve been listening to noise with growing interest since the early 90s, this led me to review for other sites for periods of time until I landed here on my own blog. I often review acts that fall into the different noise categories. Sometimes they are shared out by the label or artist and it creates a wider audience. Most of the time I am reviewing what I buy, and I feel like I am making that extra effort in this mpfree day and age of music listening. However, a balance of obscure and popular is often needed within the blog as it grows. I created a Facebook profile purely to promote this blog and then artists started contacting me to do reviews, which I liked as I hadn’t heard of many of them before.

I was reading the latest Special Interests magazine I had purchased from Unrest and there was an interview with the artist Wince and they spoke about how different golden eras of US noise have been come and gone. Being presently far from any Golden Era of noise, I figured my own way to document the underground and build a wider knowledge of what’s happening worldwide via individual tours of the Facebook Noise Groups where artists and labels seem to advertise their available work. I wanted it to function as a glimpse into today’s underground artists. They release, many play live and they are out there doing it.

For this tour, I will skim through the recent postings in one of the many the Facebook Noise groups: it is called Power Electronics/ DeathIndustrial/ Harsh Noise/ Dark Ambient. The group features artists that link to all or a few of the genres in the title.

Clipping Teeth – Enamel Shrapnel.

Clipping Teeth – Over the Lips, Past the Gums.

Label/Collective - Men Behind the Sun  - mp3 release – 2018.

Clipping Teeth is a collaboration with the guys behind the Men Behind the Sun collective and Paul Byrn who does some very good ambient and progressive music worth checking out. Clipping Teeth’s Enamel Shrapnel revels in a harsh American Digital noise assault, so it is very choppy and chaotic. Throwing out a mass of tangled feedback that begins to die until reinforced by pulsating bass and then it’s cut into by screams. A shifting journey spread across two minutes.

Over the Lips, Past the Gums, centres around vocal samples of a narrative describing Toe Nail Clipper Teeth Clipping. This, at first is more restrained than Enamel Shrapnel, until it explodes halfway through into a wall like mass of noise with distinct clear elements doing different shifts of domination. For a noise side project, Clipping Teeth delivered two interesting, refreshing, textured cuts of pure noise that will soon need a longer physical release.

Mai 12.   - La Nuit Qui Tombe - Split release September 2018.

Video teaser

Mai 12 – Does Soil Get Old?

La Nuit Qui Tombe – The Wind In The Ruin.

I keep seeing Mai 12 releases in the groups, based in Thessaloniki, Greece they are Karl Grümpe and Rene p.g. They release gorgeously packaged tapes and cdrs truly enhanced with visual flair via their Bandcamp page. Their split release with La Nuit Qui Tombe looked so nice, I bought it before I heard it, I hope it’s good.

This is a two-track tape in a unique mesh and car cover, one long track by each artist, each around the 43-minute mark. Mai 12’s piece is ‘Does Soil Get Old?’ it begins with warm bass like distorted crackle wall as things creak and groan in the background. The background sounds increase as the piece progresses - I would describe this as a warm and creaky wall of noise that is solid and consistent. It has a purposeful obscurity and stands as a document of a period in Mai 12’s existence.

A Douglas P interview sample begins La Nuit Qui Tombe’s – The Wind in the Ruin whilst a cocky sense of Avant Garde gradually steps in. My mind drifts away from DIJ towards the act Somewhere in Europe’s earlier bleak yet playful material. Things progress into juxtaposed blasts of foggy noise and dark, ominous ambient soundscapes form. A sense of past times permeates the recording which seems to hang over all Qui Tombe releases. This builds into a dense, ambient wall of sadness that moves into a closing sermon.

Both tracks do contrast against each other yet do tie in together via differing walls. A strong and very well presented split.

Analfabetism -   Kniven Sitter Kvar I Bonden - 2018

1.   De som dräpa och som dräpas skall.

2.   Av daga tagas.

3.   Fördärv.

4.   Där svinhugg går igen.

5.  Kniven djupt begravd i bonden.

Sweden’s Analfabetism is the solo project of Fredrik Djurfeldt active in many other projects.

De som dräpa och som dräpas skall is ambient bleakness that uses repetition and drones to build the sound whilst blasts of distorted vocal rage move in and break things up continually. Pulsating beats back the Power Electronics blasts of noise. The depressive Av Daga Tagas builds deep drone ambience whilst being repeatedly interrupted by aggressive crashes of distortion. Fördärv drags through further landscapes of bleakness hitting more blasts of aggression throughout its journey. This forms a combination of Ambient textures and noise throughout the album. The tracks have a fluidity through repeated sounds and technique. Select hypnotic repetition often forms the base to each track and its sonic performance. Där svinhugg går igen follows Fordarv’s example but allows for more noise chaos during its gradual build up. The finale Kniven djupt begravd i bonden slows things down and pulls right back to allow rich synth work to wash over everything, gorgeous repeated melody and sirens wail to briefly shift the context of the works state to a drop. Chaos returns, and things explode to a climatic end.

Analfabetism is a strong album documenting a rich journey that I was glad to be taken on.

Throne of Bael.

I’d had a good dose of Ambient lushness today and needed something harder as I was battling with my subconscious after too much deep intense listening. I then discovered some reassuring noise horror via Throne of Bael’s Bandcamp page. Throne of Bael seem to post regularly in the group and their releases are frequently horrible in subject matter and visuals. So, I dove in –

Scott Lawler’s Spank Hookers – Disturbing Deeds of a Dominatrix  is a recently released digital only album. It is immediately expansive with a large sound that continually reaches outwards. Each release was named after extreme fetishist acts that are conducted to submissive clients by the central hooker characters of the album. The themes covered include -Tit Milking, Diapers, Bonded Rubber Pants and Water Bondage. The sound stands as an intense juxtaposition of Harsh Noise, Wall Noise and Dark Ambient all at once to produce an impressive wide, ambitious sound. However, I couldn’t help but think is this project for real, is it someone just playing with extreme subject matter that has been revelled in time and time again? I have a very 50/50 take on the project and question if it is Lawler’s darker side or Noise for Noise’s sake, Does Spank Hookers need to be Spank Hookers? But I can’t say this is bad release or project as it is sonically impressive too as is the other material on Lawler’s BandCamp.

I then find I was Killer’s or Killer – A Day of Play. This is a digital only single track that incorporates a huge list of themes. I was Killer’s or Killer is a highly prolific project possibly based in South Africa. A Day of Play is instantly deprived it appears to be a duo. It is massively warped and abstracted beyond recognition, I can’t tell if the vocals are babble or have a narrative. This is impressive guitar formed scum sound that is incredibly random and energetic whilst maintaining a unique sense of mystery and originality. All I can say is that I am excited about this impressive; an incendiary, shitspew of abstract greatness.

http://soapstain.blogspot.com/

Bruising Pattern /RRR - split 

RRR is Sébastien Bach  and Bruising Pattern is Petar S. . France’s RRR have been active since 2012 and Austria’s Bruising Pattern since 2017.

The Bruising pattern side is multiple layers of hiss and shifting, faltering crackle overlaid on each other. It is backed by drones. The drones become more apparent and intense as you drift into the distortion which drags and pulls along; you are pulled to and from both as your concentration shifts.

RRR is a different project, as if it is an ever-emerging loop. The work here is in the details woven into the merciless repetition. As a result, RRR deliver the most punishing, torturous side of the two in an early NON way. Compared to other RRR works on the Bandcamp, this is more varied and broken up which opens the work up to other possibilities.

This is an agonising release that was pure head torture, which isn’t a bad experimental thing. I found different qualities in each project with a wealth of new work to explore.

Destruktionstalt - Døds​-​hymner. MP3 release September 2018.

Per Najbjerg Odderskov is based in Denmark has been active since the late 90s and releasing since 2000. Destruktionstalt is describes as ‘back to basics Death Industrial with atmospheric psychedelic overlays.’ The latest offering from September 2018 is Døds​-​hymner.

This uses vocal samples and noise to create rich atmosphere. There are some impressive svnth drone and arching noise passages, particularly on infection where a few elements are used to create ambitious soundscapes. As an album this does shift into different ideas across the tracks, they’re strong.  But I do question if it needs a strong vocal presence in the mix to top things off. Minor criticism aside, a very strong album that I have played through happily a few times.

Choppy Noodles 2018

Consumer Electronics weight/hostility blues

Consumer Electronics – The Weight/ Hostility Blues. Harbinger Sound - harbinger 180 - 7" single.

Amphetamine Sulphate page.

A

the weight.

B

hostility blues.

Whenever I play Consumer Electronics I think of Philip Best, topless and twisting his nipples at me whilst shouting away at the audience - I can’t get that image out of my head; onstage Best is disturbing. CE- now a trio of Best, Sarah Froelich and Russell Haswell are powerful, conceptually challenging and complex live. This is Consumer Electronics first new single since the Dollhouse album on Harbinger Sound and Repetition Reinforcement 12” on Diagonal both from 2015. It is gorgeously presented with inner sleeve and picture cover.

The Weight opens with feedback and pulsating jabs of twisty, blasting noise; backed by a constant mid paced beat. It continues the beat-based assault, peppered with short, rhythmic cuts of noise that featured on Dollhouse Songs. The main Best/ Froelich vocal is very warped in sound, this makes it partly comedic and keeps your attention with seedy, unhinged dialogue. The familiar Best vocal that comes in mid-way through the track is cut up so multiple Bests seem to shout out over each other. The theme centres on murder victims, most of whose bodies remained unidentified for years after they were found. Weight comes off like some sort of dissected dance track with screwy, combative vocals: a multiple personality pile-up.

Hostility blues creates rhythm through fart like noises that lose time as siren like sound runs parallel and another tweaked vocal delivers more rage and bile. Hostility blues’ sonic tweaking is even more comedic and hysterical in comparison to that of the weight. However instead of the choppy, multiple rage of Weight, hostility’s Froelich vocals have a consistent fluidity to their delivery.   

I like this single as it seems to push forwards in finding new deliveries for the centre stage vocal within the overall sound of Consumer Electronics. They also seem to keep finding ways to be even more minimal in their use of different sounds as if constantly stripping back to the core of each track. It is also disturbing in how everything has been mixed and adjusted, it seems purposely disjointed. I do seem to be stuck in a theme of psychic warfare while reviewing it, having to check if my turn table is playing up, adjusting the record’s speed. Can’t wait for more as always where Consumer Electronics is concerned. I am also really-excited as I am getting a vinyl copy of Estuary English for Christmas this year and I also want to bunk off work to go see them in Manchester this month with Skullflower and Iron Fist of the Sun. Yeah!!!!!!

Choppy Noodles 2018

Shift - Abandon

Shift – Abandon – Unrest Productions - UNPRLP13 – 2017 – LP.

CD – Cold Spring - CSR236CD

Unrest Productions - Unsound Recordings - Cold Spring - Unrest Bandcamp

a

to rid them all and to wash their filth from my body

nothing – no one

recaptured

b

armed, disturbed, hostile

Shift is a UK based Industrial noise project originally from Sweden that has been releasing material since 2004. There have been seven albums so far (2 are splits) and many more releases. The project is also the nucleus of the Unrest Productions label. There was a cassette on Unrest also called Abandon in 2007, however I am unsure of the connection to this release.

Abandon shifts slowly and deeply with ‘to rid them all and to wash their filth from my body’. It churns and resonates a Death Hum like a deep alarm constantly revving itself throughout the track. Scraping vocal noise hiss and beats pulsate at long intervals. High pitched noise joins in the rising intensity as the breathing noises and vocal growls increase. The Death Industrial drones are the stable core of the track as everything else evolves and changes around it.

Nothing – No One is a bad nightmare of a track, a Night Terror of ambient menace. It’s difficult to tell whether it is on a scratched loop, on repeat or just cleverly repetitive, either way I was forced to engage with the vinyl in case it had got locked in a groove or scratch. I was jolted in and out of the record; the final track on side one ‘recaptured’ does fall into a locked grove, adding further record needle paranoia with the record’s constant, sonic menace: you can’t fall into the album’s abstract qualities, you’re constantly being manipulated and moved around.

Further humming intensifies the single track that forms side 2 of Abandon, beats pulsate again with more frequency. The Humming of ‘armed, disturbed, hostile’ shifts in its’ resonating drones. The vocal is simultaneously a shout and a whisper as it blows over things like a bad, hateful wind.

This album did give me nightmares, I could hear it in my sleep. It is effective in its serious delivery and has a distinct ‘Unrest’ feel as a result, it is playful in combination with it’s menace via the pretend and real groove locks on Side A. This is a well-presented, dark, threatening menace of an album that really ups the ante where lower level deep PE/Industrial is concerned.

Choppy Noodles 2018.

Scatmother & Pissoir Rouge

Scatmother/Pissoir Rouge – Physics Dissolve in Urine - 2018. Obsessive Fundamental Realism. CD.

Obsessive Fundamental Realism Website - http://obsessivefundamentalrealism.blogspot.com/

Germany’s Scatmother has been active since around 2015 and have done 6 releases on the Filth and Violence, Wrath, Total Black and Obsessive Fundamental Realism labels – some nasty, naughty, impressive PE credentials there. Pissoir Rouge have so far released one cross dressing, masochistic tape on Obsessive Fundamental realism in 2018.

This opens very harshly with urgent blasts of immediate noise with way over the top screamed vocals that are punctuated by violent beeps. The level of violence within the sound is way higher than most of what I have heard: feedback from the microphone fills every gap in the vocals. I can’t tell what’s making the noise aside from the vocals it’s very few (2 or 3 at most) elements that work together to make an entire mass of sound. The way of making noise - blasts of distortion, vocal noise, blips, feedback - has an American 2000s noise feel which I do like. I am particularly thinking of the Obscurica label.

Even by the second track when things pull back it’s humming, and sharp pitched feedback tampered with shouted interludes it totally pulls back from the levels of the lead track, it’s more like a few friendly jabs to the head instead of the pummelling given by the opening track. The track intensifies in screaming and aggressive punctuated jolting noise.

The third track is a multi-levelled wall of feedback, hollering echoes and shrill wobbling noise. It’s more of a deliberately failing Harsh Wall that is very gappy and shrill, so it doesn’t allow you to zone out/into the wall as is the case with a lot of HNW, your attention is jolted around too much so you’re forced to engage with the work.

Pet-play shifts the vocals shift into sheer depravity, whilst arching noise and shrill feedback intensify everything massively – a sonic amplification of filth that descends into violent abstraction. Pisstrophen ups the violence again into an explosive war of sound, it cleverly uses three elements to do this - sharp feedback, blasts of distortion and mad vocals. Rites really slows down, there are minimal elements again, but it slows shit down to deep, threatening rage.

Nature has a more direct wall flirtation until vocal rage and more high-pitched jabs of sound destroy it. If anything, the wall exists for the high pitches and vocals to be in the centre stage, it is as if they are trying to out-do each other whilst teasing and upping the ante between themselves. Noise as theatre. Sex-Slave fits back into the depths of depravity, a horror of a track I don’t want to hear again, it deals with the horrors of contemporary Sex-trafficking very effectively. A vile description of modern day horrors on the news, bringing the reality of the situation home. More vile sadomasochism and intensified noise war ends the split. This uses a more-choppy digital kick with distortion and shouting.

I appreciate the directness and sheer, mass intensity of the delivery. This was recorded live in a bunker, no over dubs it is essentially a live recording session between two guys. It is in a sense the shock of earlier Power Electronics intensified through way more aggressive lyrical, direct content and a playful use of harsher, aggressive noise, sort of intense barrages swung around – foreground, back ground. Both act the part. It isn’t nice, it is a violent and traumatic listen. This is simply true roots PE with modern harsh methods and yet again more good work from OFR.

Choppy Noodles - 2018

Axebreaker Overview.

Axebreaker – Burning False Flags. Cassette/mp3 – Primal Architecture Records – 2017.

Axebreaker – The Whited Sepulcher – Anathemata Editions -2018.

Axebreaker Bandcamps- https://axebreaker17.bandcamp.com/

https://axebreakerpowerelectronics.bandcamp.com/

Primal Architecture - https://primalarchitecturerecords.bandcamp.com/artists

Terrence Hannum Website - http://www.terencehannum.com/#/0

Anathemata - https://anathemataeditions.bigcartel.com/

Axebreaker is a recently emerged US Power Electronics project by Terrence Hannum, who is also a member of bands Locrian and The Holy Circle amongst other projects, he also makes his own tape based visual art. Axebreaker is themed as an Anti-fascist Power Electronics project in retaliation to Trump’s new America and the rise of the Far-Right that came with it.

Burning False Flags begins with White Rose - a low level digital, pulsating noise delivery with shouted vocals that seem way in the distance rather than at the forefront of the recording. Synth drones take the lead as an abstracted, vocal hisses throughout. Dark ambient qualities seem to over-ride the power electronics, flirtations with walls seem to emerge at various points too.

Changeling seems to begin as atmospheric electronica, the vocal again is distanced as static hiss forms a fog over the track. Very American digital pulsations drown the tracks illusions of beauty. Enemies List; forms more ambience whilst channelling the band Suicide. In certain tracks Trumps speeches are warped beyond belief to emphasize an ugliness of what’s been said. The work ends with a cover of a Crisis track ‘Hollocaust’, is this a tease on Death in June’s change after Crisis? Either way this is Power Electronics riddled with glimpses of melody and lushness.

This is a very atmospheric recording, I think it gets too distant and ambient in parts, sometimes it is as if it is kicking off in the background. My belief is that to make this an effective Anti-Fascist Power Electronics project, it needs to be way more direct, ugly and sharp.it’s positives are that it does have a slightly ethereal element that is refreshing and an 80s synth playfulness which is quite original and fresh within the genre. There is a slight otherness – a rich atmosphere in place of harshness. I confess to still being surprised by this release and got something different to what I was expecting.

A year later enter 2018s The Whited Sepulcher which is a 4-track release. It still has the gorgeous ambience of the prior recording. It also seems to have a better placing of foreground and background elements, structural movement and pitch: it does have more impact.

The vocal is shriller, sharper and more effective than before; it punctuates well through the ambient sphere. Synths are deeper and resonate as more vocal samples continue to be warped. There are still Dark Ambient elements present which deliver layered sonic landscapes for which the vocals can travel, it’s as if the Far - Right is mocked through abstraction. A stronger use of harsh electronics, samples and pulsations build the Lost Cause as a track; a mini riot of sound ensures.

This is a more effective release, the project’s qualities have been emphasised, and they are homed in a bit more. There is harshness coupled with lush texture and ambience. There is a long way to go to a full realisation of the project emerges, but Axebreaker’s effectiveness and purpose increases.

Choppy Noodles 2018.

KNIFEDOUTOFEXISTENCE

KNIFEDOUTOFEXISTENCE – immaturity of movement – LP - (2014). Inhibitors – Cassette – (2017).

KNIFEDOUTOFEXISTENCE Bandcamp - https://knifedoutofexistence.bandcamp.com/

Facebook - 

Relevant Labels: Outsider Art Illegal Activity Male Activity Amps Against Trend 

IMMATURITY OF MOVEMENT.

Side A.

1.   Document #8 and being late.

2.   Demons.

Side B.

3.   Immaturity of movement.

Inhibitors.

1.   Creation for Creations Sake.

2.   Cradle to Grave.

3.   Battling the Silence.

4.   Damaged Children.

I saw KNIFEDOUTOFEXISTENCE play live in Nottingham last week, all I had to compare was a live show around 4 years ago with Cremation Lily and a couple of other noise acts. Last week it was clear the project had now matured and developed considerably since then. On the strength of that, I bought these two releases and chose to investigate further.

Immaturity of Movement radiates urgency and anxiety immediately with the opening track Document #8 and being late. Demons in comparison simmers in the slower, quieter regions using feedback as a piercing weapon to poke the works intensity into higher regions as shouting vocals kick things off into a fit of rage and further stabs of feedback with a failing wall off hiss. The vocals go mental in conjunction with the feedback kickstarting electronic urgency into override.

The walls aren’t failing on the title track until wonky, repetitive instrumentation suddenly dominates. Distant vocals go off as noise punctuates the warped note patterns. My first thoughts on Knifed live all those years ago was that the project was derivative; this recording doesn’t say that. He does favour raw experimentation over a lot of methods to the point where it is unique and consistently interesting.

Immaturity of Movement is daily life and memory assaulted with noise and sound towards a sense of victory. This album is a one man fight club until failure dies. The lack of control of daily life is recorded and defeated. I can’t make out if Immaturity of Movement is a permanent, imagined or temporary victory. Either way it’s victory as a recording through the acts documented in the record whilst standing out as an act of subversion against PE conservatism.

The comparisons and influences listed on the Bandcamp statement are irrelevant, this is something else completely.

For as long as I can remember, the set up in my mind has been myself, a tape recorder and a fictional third party. When I am not answering their questions, I am rehearsing the answers for questions that may arise. The material presented here is both the answers to these questions and the subject of them.

Quote from Inhibitors booklet.

Inhibitors was recorded three years later, it slowly emerges with impressive juxtapositions of noise, distortion and vocals. The balance and delivery are direct and focussed. The use of noise is sometimes rhythmic and chopped into for full effect. The delivery of vocals rises to the forefront and is at times simultaneously reinforced and abstracted by the surrounding noise.

The experimental qualities woven into the work, again give it a uniqueness. Piano and noise combine over a recorded sample until pulsating distortion wipes this away. This breaks the album up and stops it becoming too formulaic.

There is a personal, emotive quality that forms the conceptual basis of the recording. Snippets of text cover the collaged artwork. Fragments of dialogue form a fractured whole.

In comparison to Immaturity of Movement, Inhibitors is way more stripped back, it uses a more minimal range of sound to better effect. It is a tidier, sharper recording. I’d argue Inhibitors also way angrier than Immaturity; more explosive, even when it pulls back, it’s still punishing. It is harder to listen to; the intensity is higher. Good progression and a strong release.

Choppy Noodles 2018

ANTIchildLEAGUE /The RITA split cassette

ANTIchildLEAGUE / THE RITA – split tape.2018. Cassette. Obsessive Fundamental Realism.

Obsessive Fundamental Realism - http://obsessivefundamentalrealism.blogspot.com/

ANTIchildLEAGUE - https://antichildleague.bandcamp.com/

https://hagshadow.net/

The RITA - http://bakurita.blogspot.com/

ANTIchildLEAGUE

-Elephant in the room you can control.

-I’d rather stay in my hell than share your paradise. No remorse.

-Psychometric test.

-Larva epidemic.

THE RITA

-Gaya Donadio Study (Audio and Aesthetic).

The ACL side of this split starts small with eerily atmospheric and minimal sound. It eventually juxtaposes vague background dialogue and noises that gradually build up. Beeps and drones are playful; other sounds contrast this by snarling at and threatening the listener. In parallel to this the sound shifts from being chaotic to knowingly structured.

On here vocals are used as noise and aren’t often coherent or spoken; screamed hysteria cuts into tracks dramatically and builds extra layers on what is already there. On later tracks beeps and drones become nauseous and intimidating as horrible vocal sounds bully until waves of static offer an alternate static, waves of static distortion flood the proceedings. Larva Epidemic is part ambient soundscape interrupted by urgent repetitive noise.

ACL gleams when the noise is left to do most of the work and titles are suggestive without binding the work too tightly to an overall concept. As I play this release I can immediately say that this is thankfully the  ugliest, rawest ACL release in ages – Best work yet.

The Rita are now a duo of Sam McKinlay and Arlie Doyle, they deliver a slab of noise which is direct and immediate; you are thrown straight in the middle of layers of deep, dense, static walls of distortion. This is cut into with drops and quick stops in sound intermittently with change provided by some impressive shifts across the stereo range and changes of the overall tone of the walls sound. Screaming noise reveals behind the main wall of static and its continually crackling distortion as my attention shifts.

As with many Rita releases the cover is adorned with legs, this time in fishnet stockings/tights. Gaya Donadio appears on the rear cover in heavy eyeliner and a fishnet mask. Women’s legwear - a regular Rita theme dominates this recording. I personally respect this dedication to one’s own interests and with this I finally get why I love the Rita releases that I have. The bold abstract qualities of The Rita have forced the same out of ACL resulting in a solid recording that is typical of Obsessive Fundamental Realism’s growing line of releases.

Choppy Noodles - 2018