From Night Science Vol. 3
Internal Empty step up first for this disc, a half-hour track of drenched ambient tones which does everything by the book to bring about a well-executed piece, but one that has little interest for me. The sopping swell of the track which distorts its otherwise smooth features is welcome, but overall "A.L.W.S.P.M." is a rather vacant, safe piece of gloss which is forgotten very easily.
Burn Ward doesn't take so well to the longer format, a more constricted production also causing Benny's five pieces some difficulty. The ferocity of Burn Ward's frantic squeals of high-end is welcome, particularly after sitting through Internal Empty, the adbrupt approach beginning with "Insects" but quickly losing momentum with the unsatisfying "Dry Rot" and "Towers Rise" which even in their brevity never look likeachieving anything of substance. Burn Ward's vocals may be impassioned but their use quickly thins and disorients the tracks, the concentrated cut-ups and denser texturising working far better then the extended segments. After the above-average "Self Immolation" b-card CDR this disc is a disappointment but, I believe, an aberration - I won't be giving up this easily.
Xiphoid Dementia splits the difference, wafting synthetic tones bunted aside periodically by distortion-grimed rhythms, affrontive drilling, and hints of metallic clutter, the gaps shifting in their structure as the hits of louder material lenghten "Abomination," the progress aggravating these into wonderfully unsubtle blasts of noise. Again the work is impressive but a pretty safe exorcise in "experimental music," another unexplained and emotionless implementation which is technically sound but little more.
The effort which has gone into the presentation of this release, as well as the audio content, is unmistakable and if others hear what I'm missing from this disc then it will no doubt receive a positive response; sadly none of the three have given me reason to return to this one.