EE12: BT.HN & SISTRENATUS – EXPOSING THE RIBCAGE CDR
Existence Establishment helps usher in the Canadian invasion with this brutal masterpiece of wall-noise drone. BT.HN (The Rita & Sick Buildings) and Sistrenatus (formerly Funerary Call) present one long harrowing track of pure depravity. Droning overblown synths, unrelenting spasms of crunchy distortion, and subtle atmosphere form a hopeless barrage of industrial waste.
[ Excerpt 1 ] [ Excerpt 2 ] [ Excerpt 3 ]
- Metallic silver and gold ink on heavy black stock.
- Pro-pressed CDR limited to 250 copies.
- Each copy individually numbered.
REVIEWS
From Special Interests:
From And Then And Yet print zine:
From Heathen Harvest webzine:
Exposing the Ribcage is a collaborative effort between the darkened like-minds of Harlow MacFarlen of dark ambient / industrial nightmare project Sistrenatus, and Josh Rose and Sam McKinlay of BT.HN. (also known as False Creak when teamed up with NFW/Taskmaster). Both artists have already had relative success in their respective projects, with Macfarlen having released twice under Sistrenatus on Cold Spring and once on the French label Hermetique (that is owned by Jérôme Nougaillon of Propergol). This, of course, is away from his well-known venture into the world of ritual black ambiance in Funerary Call, a relatively underrated project from labels like Fall of Nature and Nuclear War Now! On the other side of the coin is BT.HN., whom have worked with the likes of PACrec, Dogma Chase (a limited vinyl label featuring artists like Bizarre Uproar and Sutcliffe Jügend) and the absurdly prolific label Chronditic Sound. This doesn’t even begin to go into Sam McKinlay’s work with The Rita, whom has had another prolific career through that project, releasing an immense amount of material over the past 14 years with RRRecords, No Fun Productions, Self Abuse, and SNSE. Needless to say, this is a live meeting of two literal powerhouse projects.
The album doesn’t waste any time getting down to business, with the volume quickly swelling to bring about a wall of industrial noise. Hollow tubular sounds immediately pair up with strong pulsating rhythms and high-pitched chirping. This segment specifically mocks the image on the front cover of lines, whether they be cyber or medical, feeding directly into and exposed female chest. The heart races, blood fills the hollow tubes and exits. The hollow sounds subside, leveling out into a flat-line under the buzzing sound and chaotic experience of reaching unconsciousness. Chaos eventually subsides into a powerful duo of static noise and a droning bass-end layer that makes only enough room in the stretch of sound for mechanical high-pitched noise tweaking, which at times can be compared to electrocardiography machines powering down. Towards the 22-23 minute mark though, the heartbeat and ECG bleeps arise briefly before fading into the returning chaotic oblivion. What we seem to be getting from Sistrenatus on this collaboration is the style of in-your-face drone that tracks like Wolf Furnace and Frequency Contamination exhibit, without his trademark bombastic, percussive industrial ferocity and random harsh noise spasms. Rather, the noise is less harsh and far from spastic, falling in line with a strangely (and, probably, ironic) well-flowing collaboration. It would seem that most of the harsh elements mimick the style found on BT.HN.’s releases, with distorted, delayed, and reverbed intensity, at least regarding the Retrospective-era of BT.HN.
Combined with the theme presented by the album artwork, you can’t help but be influenced by the physical, medical, and subconscious implications involved with this recording. However, it doesn’t seem that fans of the harsher aspects of noise would be all that satisfied with this release. Exposing the Ribcage is noise integrated with a death industrial atmosphere, therefore it remains in line with a darker mood and approach than you would typically see, but also comes with a more basic, less frantic composition. Exposing the Ribcage is a Pro CD-R that comes in a metallic Silver and Gold printed, heavy black stock gatefold sleeve. Each copy is individually stamp-numbered up to its limitation of 250 copies. This was #210.
From Musique Machine:
Exposing the Rib Cage is a live recording revealing the results of a three-way British Columbian power electronics team-up involving Sam McKinlay (The Rita), Josh Rose (Sick Buildings) and Harlow MacFarlane (Sistrenatus and Funerary Call). The set is a single piece just over one hour in length that explores the extended interplay between a limited arsenal of generators and effects to create a monochromatic Arctic tundra.
This journey isn’t as relentlessly harrowing as one might expect from the prospect of enduring over an hour without respite from these stalwarts of noise. Even though what seems like broken washing machine engines – whose propulsive cycles chug, skid and pulse across the full frequency range – battle for supremacy with the distorted dead air of antique radio sets and the fiercest of gales spitting sand and stone, this dense turmoil rarely extends for over six or so minutes at a time. Such contrast is provided through judicious reductions positioned almost evenly across the piece where layers of distortion disappear as much as they dominate allowing the detritus of subtler sounds, from sci-fi glissandi and spectral emissions to buried vocal screams and the beeping of an old ECG machine, to emerge, albeit briefly, from the carnage.
At these semi-regular resting posts the heavy tape delay that pervades the whole album becomes most transparent, throwing selected events around with abandon, economically maximising the extent and effect of the pooled sounds through overdrive and feedback. But the pace of the delay seems mostly fixed throughout and working with such a minimal range can reduce the impact of its colliding, textured trails. Consequently, by the mid-way point the drama needs some concentration on the part of the listener to be sustained and the formlessness can have a surprisingly soporific effect as the brain succeeds in cancelling out what has become background noise, literally.
Thankfully the quality of the recording and mastering ensures that this bleak, decaying landscape is rendered in high definition as a crisp, textural experience. Without this quality the chaotic cacophonies would lose the granularity of sound required to distinguish the many and complex shifts and patterns within. So it is with a clear vision that we are invited to join an expedition across a harsh, alien terrain from the safety of our homes.
From Animal Psi:
‘Exposing the Ribcage’ is a pile-up live Noise collaboration involving BT.HN (Sam McKinlay of The Rita and Josh Rose of Sick Buildings) and Sistrenatus (H MacFarlane). This six-handed way to kill an hour leaves little slack in this massive track, and the tripling of efforts means any idiosyncratic misstep is redressed by the oversight of the averages. This is not to say all we get is 65 minutes of maximized dissonance. Well-preserved are the lunar canyons and swirling cloudstorms so vital to such classical noise swell. Further elaborated are the cybernetic feeds and mechanistic rhythms which mark this mode of dystopic sci-fi, consumed as it is in a hairy organic overgrowth ala STALKER and the loathing between flesh and machinery (The Rita an obvious point of comparison, but also Luasa Raelon and Redrot come to mind). Incorporating two modes of excess – the first a nearly-orbital churn of filth, the second an interplay of bleating electrons and high-frequency static, spaced in long intervals – the hour maintains without too much promiscuity, and though it would probably be a stronger release if the session was chopped and punched-up with terser editing, the entire hulking mass keeps the teeth engaged from front to back. A pro-CDr of 250 numbered, embossed copies in a metallic-printed sleeve.
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