Marax "Paroxysm" CD
[Snip-Snip]
Six tracks of aptly rugged experimental noise from the project that never sits still. Of course certain elements of this work parallel various strings of Marax's past efforts, but in large part this is quite a different beast... which can be both a good thing and a bad thing. The first several tracks are rather similar to each other, based mainly around windy hisses over what sound like radio signals and some twirling tones or sparse use of thick low-end. Most of the radio segments sound either religious or political, and I love their placement in the mix even though I wish I could make out a bit more of the content. "Lapsed Into Unconsciousness and Died" brings in some harsher distortion that's caving in on itself so it's curiously quiet, even more so than the preceding compositions. "Molesting the Inner Child", on the other hand, is a whopping 13 minutes of piercing high-end tones that rise and fall with a great sizzle of crispy crunch just at the edges. There are also some synth textures in the background that get a little more melodic than I'm accustomed to hearing from the project. Then "So, You Think You Got Away With Rape" is a blazing track of straight harsh noise, at least twice as loud as most of the other material herein. The CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with two xeroxed inserts (one that wraps around the other) like most all Snip-Snip releases, but this one looks slightly better if for no other reason than the xerox of the wing looks darker than usual, and the purple color is a better fit than the really bright colors often used. All in all the material is honestly somewhat generic and uninteresting to me. I've been really intrigued by most of Marax's recent work so it's strange that this work feels like a bit of a step backwards. There's just not a lot of atmosphere here. I like a lot of the tail end of "Molesting the Inner Child", and the synths used in that piece are interesting (if not somewhat underdeveloped melodically), but the bulk of the disc seems rather improvisational and typical of the genre's more basic explorations. And I know for a fact that Marax has far more of a message to convey, and is capable of better work. (5/10)
Running time - 35:10, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Molesting the Inner Child]
Snip-Snip Records - http://www.iheartnoise.com/snipsnip/

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