Marax "Murder of Crows" CD
[Snip-Snip]
I haven't heard so much from Marax in recent years, but this lengthy CD-R contains two sets of three collaborative tracks along with a third long collaborative piece - each pairing Marax with a different noise artist. First up are three short works with Patrick Beck, running two to three minutes each with crunching distorted loops, distant wails of feedback, and subdued samples or grunted vocal work that adds additional texture without playing a truly focal role in the compositions. "Baghdad Death Mass" is a little less effective in its use of cheesy electronic sounding explosive/weaponry textures, though the intent was clear, but even the brooding synths in the distance simply feel a little out of character and lacking in the quality that would be needed to pull this piece off. More efficiently repetitious are three significantly longer collaborations with Brad Hall, each topping 10 minutes and taking up the bulk of the disc by far. I'm not familiar with Brad Hall, but rest assured I was stunned when a programmed beat lurked its way into the core of "Crawlspace Atrocities". Honestly the beat and the faintly melodic synths and scattered backing textures are actually pretty promising. What ruins this particular selection are the odd vocal manipulations, which basically amount to occasionally pitch-shifted grunts or moans or something, which sound really cheesy and clash with the otherwise restrained and chilled out nature of the piece. On the other hand, "They Are Among Us" brings back some of the less than stellar synth work of "Baghdad Death Mass" coupled with beats that have somewhat more of a typical electronic feel - not something upbeat or dance-y like techno or anything, but, you know... there's not much of an atmosphere to the percussive programming in this one. 12-minute "Land of the Dead" almost nails it, though: Blending eerie drones and low-end hums with a tactful beat that fades in and out with more of a tribal bent to it. What messes with the quality here, again, are the monotonous keyboard notes, as whatever synth is being used simply isn't enough of a quality piece of equipment to make this work (or at least the sound patches employed aren't strong enough). Closing things out is a massive 19-minute joint effort with Duckworth, another name I'm not familiar with, but whatever the case this epic is by far the strongest selection herein - generally taking a dark ambient road, but blending in some glitchy electronics and harsher, jumbled accoutrements to add more activity to the span of time. It definitely fits in texturally with all of the influences explored elsewhere on the disc (sans the beats), but its delivery and structure are certainly quite different. As usual with Snip-Snip the CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with a fairly shoddy looking set of colored paper xeroxes wrapped around standard xeroxes, and despite amply bleak imagery the general look of these releases is definitely starting to wear thin on me. I'm not terribly fond of this release as a whole since it's inconsistent by nature, but the bulk of the material simply isn't that interesting to me, and while I can admire the expansion and willingness to try new things, even as collaborations a lot of this material fails to represent the brooding qualities that usually rest at the core of Marax's work. And perhaps that's the intention, which is fine, but the end result simply doesn't do it for me. Sorry. (4/10)
Running time - 57:58, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Remnants of a Diseased Mind, Marax/Duckworth]
Snip-Snip - http://www.iheartnoise.com/snipsnip/

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