Beyond "Houkai" CD
[self-released]
Three lengthy tracks of sinister, minimal dark ambient noise from this German project. Opener "Blightstrider" is a new piece that runs 12 minutes of very consistent, windy low-end drones with some faint sounds in the distance that sound perhaps like spoken samples, though you can't make out anything very specific at all. Towards the latter portion of the song a little bit of very quiet melody seems present, though it could all be simply an illusion. Following is "In Pain", a remix of a TYSA track, which gets louder and makes more intense use of stereo panning with some very faintly distorted reverberations and an ethereal sort of texture. The volume level sort of flows to and fro, but the piece is still incredibly repetitious (in a good way) with little or no variation from its underlying rhythm and structure. Closer "Torn (Decay Remix)" is a reworked selection from Beyond's "Shadeworld" release, again louder and more aggressive than its predecessor. It's also a little more varied in texture, with some eerily melodic bits of piercing feedback, throbbing low-end, etc. Later in the composition the melodic aspects become slightly more dominant, and the landscape definitely makes far more drastic shifts (over time) than the other two selections - which is nice, but somehow a little less emotionally bleak than the other two songs. The CD-R comes in a slim DVD sized case with xeroxed artwork (hand-numbered of only 60 copies) and minimal text credits. There's not much to look at it, but I suppose it works well enough. Apparently this disc sells for a mere $3 (perhaps a little more with shipping), which is quite nice to see in these days where numerous labels are charging exorbitant prices for small CD-R runs. This is a very nice release. I honestly haven't heard much in the way of experimental noise lately that's taken my interest, but this is my first exposure to Beyond and I'd be pleased to hear more. Good work. (7/10)
Running time - 32:45, Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: Blightstrider, In Pain]
Beyond - http://www.soundclick.com/beyonddrone/

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