Actuary/The Black Scorpio Underground – Metamorphosis of the Transgressor C30

Love Earth Music

This is a pairing that seems to make sense. Both Actuary and The Black Scorpio Underground tend to meander over that line between ambient and noise in a similar style. This is also, the first release on cassette that I have received from Love Earth Music, is it marking a new era for the label? Who knows, but I am quite fine with it.

Actuary is up first on side A with one long track entitled Stricken Host Lies Down. Kicking things off with minimalist feedback drones, atmosphere and very controlled layers of carefully crafted noise. Over the first half of the track the sound is slowly worked up into a frenzy and by the half-way mark it’s full throttle ahead. Once the noise is in full swing expect distorted sci-fi synth sweeps, blasts of distorted feedback and textures squeals. It has more of a clean/synth feel than just strait up noise but it’s still frantic and aggressive.

TBSU is up next on side B and with Genital Minotaur they present a muddle of found sounds colliding in chaos. Banging around, shaking things, weird tribal percussion, sounds like almost anything they could get their hands on. By the time the end of the track rolls around there are some spoken samples from the radio or something. Immolation/Revelation is the second track they present and it takes on a much more industrial feel. The bulk of TBSU’s material here is quite experimental though, with atmospheres too weird to be dark or gothic, too noisy to be straight up industrial, and not noisy enough to be harsh noise.

The one thing that this split gets really right is the pairing of the artists. It seems both these acts are along similar lines of aesthetic, tone, and ability at this point. The music is good, it’s thoughtful and composed but just doesn’t quite grab me as being the breaking point for either of the projects. Solid work and a decent release with signs of potential.

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