40 Watt Womb "s/t" CD
[Brise-Cul]
One track, "62:51:39", that runs, surprise, 62:51:39. Yep. Over an hour of experimental noise with a tendency towards the more distorted side of things, but not without a certain sense of atmosphere. There's a ton of panning and a wide tonal range, as well as a fairly warm mix that feels aptly rugged where it should be without sacrificing clarity. Obfuscated vocals/vocal samples (it's impossible to tell) break in on rare occasion, but a lot of the track revolves around sparse piercing feedback and swishing midrange textures. At around 10 minutes in the song starts to get melodic, sort of like cutups of classical music with some vibrations and brutal bursts of distortion spliced in, eventually breaking down to a more minimal level with some lower rumbles and a few smoother ambient drones. Nothing really stagnates for too long, though. It's always sort of shifting and changing up along the way. It really does get very calm at certain points, with really interesting ethereal ringing textures and subtle hums, or even some manipulated stringed instruments for very brief periods of activity. Probably most surprising are the beats that come in a few minutes past the halfway mark, adding the first real sense of odd structure to the piece - sticking around for longer than most any other isolated element. The CD-R comes in a slipcase printed in quality black ink on white paper, with very simple, minimal artwork and text. It really looks fairly clean and crisp, so I think it works out well. I like a lot of the pieces of this composition quite a bit, but I do feel that the constant movement of the track is a little problematic. On one hand it's nice because it helps the overly excessive timeframe pass by, but then at the same time certain moments would have been far superior had they been separated into their own tracks where the sounds could be fully explored. This is a good debut, and one that is suggestive of numerous styles and influences, but I'd like to hear some of those directions taken to a more complete conclusion. (6/10)
Running time - 62:51, Tracks: 1
[Notable tracks: there's just one]
Brise-Cul Records - http://www.brise-cul-records.cjb.net

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