Lockweld "Mel Pig" LP
[Maruta]
Finally some new output from Lockweld, and on vinyl no less! This is some of the most minimal material that I've heard from Lockweld. There are a lot of churning distorted loops and repetition, but this is also some of the fullest and crispest of their work as far as the recording quality goes. There's much more of a bite here. This is definitely a return to no frills harsh electronic noise, and I like the fact that most of the compositions are slower moving, brief, and spacious... it's not that generic "wall of noise" type of assault at all. The sound sources are credited as being synths, found electronics, samples, rhythmic distortion, machine noise, power tools, fire, and weaponry. Judging from that list it's nice to see they still haven't lost their edge, ha, ha! "Solid and Liquid Aerosols" introduces some slight musical melody underneath the distortion, making things more sinister - a definite standout. "Atmosphere Test" unleashes some piercing distortion, especially on the high-end, but has some similar tones to "Solid and Liquid Aerosols" in the distance that add some extra kick. You can definitely hear the power tools at work in tracks like "Mel Pig", and there's probably some sort of grinding power tool action mixed in with the reverberated rhythms of "Monitoring Systems" as well. The second side of the LP seems to become a bit more aggressive as it goes on, though "Raw Materials Storage" does end with some chaotic reverberated hums. I might assume that all of these tracks were cut out from larger recording sessions, as each piece starts and stops very abruptly with no real beginnings or ends per se. The packaging is a totally D.I.Y. effort: A plain white sleeve with the Lockweld logo and a sawblade spraypainted on using a stencil, then smeared around a bit. The back cover contains nothing more than a black smear, in fact. There's a small xeroxed insert inside with all of the track titles and recording information, etc. Very simple. Honestly it's somewhat shoddy looking as a whole, but something about that is oddly effective in this case. This is definitely a solid and consistent LP from Lockweld. A nice return after what seemed like a period of inactivity... (7/10)
Running time - 36:00 (approximately), Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Solid and Liquid Aerosols, Monitoring Systems, Raw Materials Storage]
Maruta Records - http://www.maruta-records.com

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