V/A – BG/BTW/HP/ORU July 2013 Tour 3xC20

Self Released

This release is a tour-de-force of harsh noise heavyweights from their tour last year. Three tapes chalk full of the filthiest cut-up noise attacks I’ve heard and it’s absolutely brilliant and devastating.

Brad Griggs is up first – a hidden gem of the midwest – who’s noise is reminiscent of early Pedestrian Deposit. It’s crunchy as fuck and rough around the edges. Mostly a constant barrage of junk attacks but there is a contact mic shuffle breakdown about 1/3 of the way through.

Side B is Breaking the Will who has a more whitewashed sound, but only in comparison to Brad Griggs. This is still pretty crunchy stuff. I like how about 1/2 way through there is a white-hot break into seething whispy noise and high-pitched feedback. It changes things up from constant movement to something more meditative and minimalist reminding me of a Skin Graft style move. Following this passage there is some excellent sound manipulation with more moments of cut-up junk, and some really nice equalizer changes pushing bass frequencies into throbbing territory.

Side C continues with Hostage Pageant’s Watchtower Trapping which has a more wet and rusted quality to the sound. The high quality of noise continues with this excellent foray into more textured hellish seizures.

Side D is the first moment that really strikes me as different with Orgasmic Response Unit’s Dreams of Getting Pissed On which features only pure junk noise for the first part of it. The junk textures eventually build into a wall-noise interlude before exploding into even more crusty, lo-fi harsh noise. This is like the best of all sub-genres of harsh noise and really keeps the momentum going on the release.

Side E kicks off in a similar vein with junk noise assaults this time having a much more glassy texture – perhaps glass objects thrown into an industrial grinder. The track is merely labeled as Exquisite Corpse Collaboration and upon investigating a little bit I found that such method works as follows: Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver (from the original French term cadavre exquis) or rotating corpse, is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. “The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun,” as in “The green duck sweetly sang the dreadful dirge”) or by being allowed to see only the end of what the previous person contributed. It’s certainly an interesting method of construction here with obvious thought put into the composition this release just keeps getting better and better.

Side F is the last track and is yet another collaboration, which I guess must be more freeform. The intro the track is actually quite sinister with a thick droll of crunchy distortion yet featuring more spacious industrial elements in the background it proves very effective. The track escalates perfectly with surges of wide band harsh noise fading in then being cut-off suddenly. Finally it works into a cascading whirlwind of layered noise which actually still seems a touch restrained. There are some really cool moments right at the end which make me just a touch sad when the track cuts off.

Overall an absolutely sick split here. I haven’t been super into harsh noise stuff lately but this completely redeems any sort of interest I my have lost in the genre. This is everything I could ever want in a harsh noise release and more with the (not-so) subtle industrial elements and exquisite editing it’s a shame this is limited to only 40 copies. All of these artists should be on you’re watch list if you are at all a fan of harsh noise or extremely heavy industrial music. Excellent release on all levels.

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