v/a "Record of Shadows Infinite" compilation CD
[Crucial Blast]
Visually this is one of the most professional and well handled Crucial Blast releases to date. The colors are consistent and bright, the text clean, the information plentiful. Underneath the tray is a lengthy set of text regarding drones and how the historical presence of droning sounds correlates to the artists' work on this CD, which is, of course, based around a theme of "drones". Inside the booklet are a few more snippets of text regarding drones on a more scientific level, along with liner notes and an emblem representing each contributing artist. Very cool. The always intriguing Ruhr Hunter opens up with quiet, repetitive melodic low-end notes and absolutely throbbing, pulsing bass frequencies underneath - gradually increasing in volume as chiming bells and a strange plucking melody come into play. Troum (Germany) offers a similar piece in its use of quiet ambient minimalism and soft melodies, but it's not as musically based. Unearthly Trance uses sinister, deeply spoken/sung vocals with some cavernous ambient resonance and a few guitar chords, but I'm not really into the use of guitars. I don't know... something just doesn't fit right, probably something about the tonality of the recording. "Cave Floor", by Thuja, is the longest track herein, nearing 10 minutes. It's a very consistent piece created with minimal hums and drones and some shuffling noises and light metallic sounds, almost like field recordings of some sort - eerie yet relaxing. Scott Jenerik's "Of a Dead God" is a true drone track, the first of its kind on this release, literally building itself from oppressively thick bass tones that have a bit of a vibrato going on and creating some of the loudest moments on the disc, breaking up into distortion as the swells continue. Following is House of Low Culture in similar form, but definitely generally quieter and more spacious, using cleaner and scarcely melodic textures to accent the simplistic nature of the composition. Amon (Italy) flows along with lots of dense drones as well, somewhere in between Jenerik and House of Low Culture, not too melodic, not too soft... just a nice, well rounded mass of dark ambient excellence. Then Chaos as Shelter (Israel) introduces very faint crackles of distortion to the rising and falling of hypnotically consistent murmurs, while Beneath the Lake appears true to form with a subtly musical dark ambient track that creates a certain natural environment. "Untitled #133" by Francisco Lopez takes about a minute (of its seven total) to build into a wall of persistent harsh noise, not too over the top, but, for me, not a good match for anything else on this compilation, as it has fewer of the qualities around which this collection is themed, and just isn't of as high a level of quality as the other contributions. Mind you that none of these selections are bad, I just feel that this one, while only fitting at the end, is still a bit out of place. This is a very good compilation, though. I hope this is a sign of things to come from Crucial Blast. (7/10)
Running time - 67:22, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Ruhr Hunter, Amon, Chaos as Shelter, Beneath the Lake]
Crucial Blast - http://www.crucialblast.net

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