Immaculate:Grotesque "Circles" CD
[Truculent]
I believe this is the first professionally pressed full-length CD from this Rhode Island harsh noise project, and I will say that it's quite a step up in professionalism across the board. "The Kitchen" starts off and runs an obscene 30 minutes in length, creating a nice, bleak mix of thick and raw low-end distortion with some razor sharp high-end tones scraping against the surface. Things gradually get a bit more consistently over the top harsh, but there's still a lot of movement and some sort of a sinister atmosphere. Of course, 10 minutes in the piece can start to get tiresome, but there are some odd undertones of what I would almost call illusory melody that are actually very cool when they appear. "Other People" (14+ minutes) has a lot of similar textures present as far as thick distortion and sizzling treble, but there's an enormous bass drone going on as well - and some of those bizarre little melodic elements seep into the far distance on occasion. "Object" is by far the shortest piece, barely topping two minutes, so it feels like it's over before it begins by comparison, but the brevity pays off. "110 Days" heads back into marathon territory at 17 minutes, unleashing a load of sweeping, hissy distortion and rumbling ambient synths in the lower levels. "Turn" closes and is around four minutes of total harsh noise in the classic sense. Not the most interesting piece on the disc in my opinion, but it still has its moments. The recording on this effort is probably the best Immaculate:Grotesque has ever sounded. Everything is brutally loud, but there's an enormous level of clarity involved, without shedding the warmth or the abrasiveness needed to keep the weight of the textures intact. I really like the simplicity of the layout here. It's very consistent and looks excellent to me. All of the imagery consists of large, close-up shots of leaves, dirt, wood, and other such debris, and very minimal text appears anywhere other than the front cover and the succinct inside message of, "Sometimes you have to hurt the ones you love." I have to give this release the benefit of the doubt, despite the fact that I find most of the songs and the total running time of the CD to be a bit much, because this is a lot better than most of the harsh noise that comes my way, and it's certainly a professionally handled release that in my opinion has really placed Immaculate:Grotesque on a level above many of his former contemporaries. (7/10)
Running time - 68:15, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Other People, Object]
Truculent Recordings - http://www.truculentrecordings.net

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