The Haters/Lockweld "split" LP
[Gameboy]
The Haters offer up one lengthy track, "Dirwyn #22", which consists of minimal whirring feedback with some sizzling sounds crackling around... for 20 minutes. Yes, that's right. While I do enjoy the track and its minimal, droning, repetitive nature, it's quite literally the exact same thing over and over for a whopping 20 minutes. No variation, no nothing. I would assume that time it takes to play back is equal to the time it took to record, but who knows. Not bad really, but I wouldn't mind a little variety! Lockweld's side consists of six tracks of raw and rugged harsh noise. Here the muddy distortion uses more rumbling low-tones and oppressive, decaying textures than over the top abrasiveness. Lots of hums and whirrs and reverberated tones cutting in and out make up the bulk of the tracks, which are fairly minimal, and tend to be slightly on the quieter side as far as most Lockweld material goes. The majority of the tracks are also fairly brief, which seems to move things along quickly - especially when compared to The Haters' piece on side A. The LP is on black vinyl with blank red labels with an "H" stenciled on The Haters' side and an "L" stenciled on the Lockweld side. The LP sleeve is printed on the reverse side of a Lasse Marhaug/Brutum Fulmen split LP sleeve (also released by Gameboy) with each band name stenciled onto the front in red paint, hand-numbered out of 300 on the back along with the label's address - all in red ink. The sides of the sleeve are merely taped together in the center with black duct tape. An 8.5" x 11" xeroxed insert is inside with images of strange sea creatures and information regarding the two contributing bands. D.I.Y., and somewhat crude, but it does work. This is a solid effort. It's a hard call because on the one hand it's a little monotonous and sort of shoddy looking, but at the same time both of those qualities make sense here, and sort of work together with the atmosphere of the music. So in the end it gets the green light from me. (7/10)
Running time - 40:00 (approximately), Tracks: 7
[Notable tracks: Dirwyn #22, I Don't Care, Burn This Place Down]
Gameboy Records - http://www.gmby.net

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