Hum of the Druid "Wall of Arms" CD
[Barbituarian]
Here's the debut full-length from this relatively new dark ambient project that's consistently impressed me with everything he's released thus far, and this is no exception. Worth noting is that the entirety of this disc contains no synths or keyboards, everything is made up of analog/live recordings. "A Fisherman, A Templar" starts things off with lots of rumbling hums and drones with light wisps of midrange and what sounds like potentially manipulated vocals in the distance at certain points. The back and forth panning and shifts in volume as things progress create a lot of movement within the piece, which, as usual, is quite sinister. The longer "Oetzi" follows (nearly eight minutes) with much brighter ethereal textures and more distance between the foreground and background layers. Things eventually quiet down a bit and let a lot of really subtle textures (some faintly musical in a sense) swirl around in the lower levels with a very obscured and quiet sample that's a little hard to dig out of the resonant low-end pulses. This leads into the harsher, though still rather subdued and atmospheric, "Mamihlapinatapei" (an awkward title, though the word brilliantly translates to "a shared glance of longing where both know the meaning but neither is quite willing to make the move"). Here a good amount of thick distortion comes crashing in over the same types of cascading ambient waves, though the movement never gets too chaotic and the distortion remains muddy enough to stay consistent with the vibe of the surrounding environment. The brief "Troglodeity" follows in a vein closer to the opening two compositions, though perhaps a bit more atmospheric and brooding in overall tone. "Cambodian Statue" brings in more of a piercing midrange attack with some crushing surges that are more rhythmic in nature, though not persistent or structured enough to really come off as a "pattern" of any sort. This one's chock full of some really twisted sounds, though... definitely interesting and the kind of thing that fucks with your ears. "Ceremonial Suit & Tie" hits just under 12 minutes, significantly longer than the other selections, building up slowly and more minimally as well. Movement is restricted to fading in and out with only scarce layers of textbook dark ambient soundscapes, later bringing in more intensive layers with low vocal chants/moans and a little faint distortion here and there, with a few more smatterings of faint musical undercurrents (very softly, mind you). The CD-R comes in a black digipack with small pieces of artwork printed on matte brown paper secured to the covers, and a similar insert slipped inside for the tracklist. Very simple, probably inexpensive, and also effective for a tasteful D.I.Y. look. Good stuff. And it sells for a very respectable $5ppd in the US, no more than $7ppd worldwide. Fair as fair can be. This is definitely a name to watch out for. I'll be both surprised and disappointed if a more prominent label of some sort doesn't secure a more proper release for this project within the next year. Here's to hoping... as thus far Hum of the Druid has been 100% consistent in quality. (7/10)
Running time - 37:11, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Oetzi, Mamihlapinatapei, Cambodian Statue]
Hum of the Druid - http://druid.thekatana.com

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