Hive Mind "Sand Beasts" CD
[PACrec]
This disc contains one massively bleak 38+ minute dark ambient epic from this collaborative duo featuring members of Sirkut Electronics and Black Sand Desert, among others. The pace is slow and crawls back and forth while fading in and out with ominously thick low-end and a little bit of a midrange sizzle, maintaining a very quiet sense of minimalism for the first several minutes. Around eight minutes in a consistent hum starts to seep into the background and add an eerie sense of near melody while the foreground thins out just a touch and gradually builds back into a thicker, more persistent pulse as a little more layering gets involved. The background tones eventually get higher and more active, twisting around and fading back and forth, with powerful bass surges coming into play as well. These types of tones and textures mingle together over the course of the track in varying manners and eventually start to reach their most sinister levels some 18 - 20 minutes into the composition as things tend to become thicker and louder, but still not overtly aggressive. Hugely resonant percussive sounds rise from the depths and begin to carry the piece to its end, as the volume starts to drop and thin out (effectively and intentionally) bit by bit over the course of the last five minutes or so. For the most part the entire selection is very consistent, but oddly I wouldn't call it one-sided, nor is it particularly repetitive. In a way it is sort of repetitive, but not in a droning, hypnotic sort of way, just in the sense that it maintains a consistent aesthetic over a long period of time. All of the changes and shifts that manifest themselves do so subtly and over the course of minutes, so nothing is too immediate or jarring, and everything flows quite deliberately. The disc comes in a nice matte slipcase with some green and gray coloring, depicting layers of abstract patterns and clean, minimal text. So there's not much to it, but it is fairly effective. Nice work, overall. Hive Mind already has several other releases out there, so keep an eye out. (7/10)
Running time - 38:35, Tracks: 1
[Notable tracks: there's only one]
PACrec - http://www.iheartnoise.com

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