xdementiaPost subject: Wether/Women In Tragedy – Split CS
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 11:02 pmWether/Women In Tragedy – Split CS
Earth.Space.Noise Laboratories: http://www.earthspacenoise.com/
Overall Rating: B
Composition: B
Sounds: B
Production Quality: B
Concept: B
Packaging: B+
Here's a nicely packaged cassette from the ever growing Earth.Space.Noise label, a D.I.Y. tape label known mostly for it's infamous “Kasette Kvlt” series of anonymous noise albums. Of course, this time the artists show themselves as none other then Wether and Women in Tragedy. WiT I have reviewed before and am quite fond of his work so I was looking forward to rocking this, while Wether is a completely new artist to me.
Wether is up first on side A with “Wound and Scar” a solidly composed dark noise drone piece complete with soft walls of distortion, wispy gusts of white noise and moaning vocals then evolving into a noisier industrial sound towards the end. The material actually could almost be confused as WiT's sound, very similar in style. I like this stuff, it's dark, noisy, has texture but is also quite muddy and undefined. This exemplifies the good quality of lo-fi and doesn't get tied down by the bad. Nothing very original or memorable here, but well composed with sounds that are consistent and effective.
WiT are up next with a much more varied track. Kicking off with alternating echoing kick drums and harmonic droning vocals it's a bit more clear and experimental while still having an emotional edge. The minimalist atmosphere holds up for a minute or two until a subdued blast of distorted noise joins the fray. Eventually working up to a repeating guitar line and heavily distorted melodies of vocals and guitar the track evolved into noisier territory while still keeping harmonic movement as it's base. I get a rubbed the wrong way when the guitar comes to the forefront and creates an almost indie rock riffing which I find to be quite out of context. Luckily it's treated well and not so defined as to ruin the track, because it is effectively joined by washes and pulses of delayed distortion as a backdrop and not just some wanky solo action. The one thing I do like about the track is the evolution of it all, although the “build up” is just more of the same from WiT he obviously has continued to hone his art.
These two artists make for a great split not just because of their solid performances but also because of sharing a similar sound. I cannot count how many splits I have with two artists who sound so different I rarely want to hear both sides at the same time, but this is different and makes sense as a release. Another quality release from Earth.Space.Noise.
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