Goat "Baphometamphetamine" CD
[Philosophy Shop/Cyber-Blast]
Okay, folks. It's Goat. If you expect anything other than extremely long tracks of all out harsh noise, you're not very smart, got it? And that's what you'll get. Two tracks, 44 minutes, harsh noise. Thick, raw, distorted harsh noise. There's some layering and some panning, some windy treble and rumbling bass, but for the most part it's consistent and beats you over the head until you very clearly get the point. Okay, okay... believe it or not there are some (gasp) ambient passages, namely the throbbing loop of droning bass that hits around the latter chunk of "Raising the Temple of the Goat", and those work nicely to throw some additional atmosphere into the mix (especially once the crispy reverberated distortion starts cutting back in), but make no mistake... for the most part there's little variation here. "Razing the Temple of the Goat", the similarly titled second track, is alike in its use of repetition, but never really strays too far from the path, granted the latter half of the song does feel like it has a bit more movement and ferocity going on. I think the recording is 50/50 with this stuff. I like the rawness because it has a dense, natural sort of vibe and that rough sound works in relation to the style of noise being put forth. But at the same time, I think that these tracks would have more dimensionality if the highs were truly piercing, and the lows were clear enough to let more of those grimy textures shine through. I'm not sure what means were used to record this, but to me it sort of sounds similar to what you'd hear if an old cassette release was put to CD-R. It's kind of muddy, but not enough to kill it... and you can tell that there's more there than your ears can properly discern. The black-bottom CD-R comes in a simple sleeve with "Goat" spelled out in cocaine on the cover (along with proper snorting paraphernalia) and some wacky textures on the back with the tracklist. Inside is a basic xerox insert with a thanks list on it, and there you have it. Slim and simple. But yeah, you know me... even though I think this is some strong noise, I still think it needs something more. I actually like the tracks, but they're too long for me to really get into (surprise), and I think the overall presentation/recording could make a difference in the aesthetic appeal of the work given an extra push. So... I like this, but I want Goat to really smash my face up sometime, so I have to keep being critical of this stuff! This one definitely gets the prize for most creative album title of the year, though. Ha... (5/10)
Running time - 44:17, Tracks: 2
[Notable tracks: both are nice but I'll go with "Raising the Temple of the Goat" overall]
Philosophy Shop Records - aosullivanmi@earthlink.net

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