Damn near 80 minutes of experimental noise in 10 tracks, all recorded direct to disc with no overdubs. And some of it's pretty damn good. I can't say the horribly unprofessional appearance of the release does much to benefit the music, and almost all of the songs are entirely too long (as is the disc - almost no one could pull off 80 minutes of noise without a hitch), but this material has its moments. It's generally sort of off the wall ambient soundscapes with lots of low hums and drones, blips and whirrs, rhythmic loops, what sometimes sound like manipulated stringed instruments, a little bit of melody or musical leanings, etc. My biggest problem with the disc is that a lot of the tracks have this silly sort of childlike vibe happening, with video game sounding textures or computerized voices deep in the mix, etc. It's just too lighthearted for me. There are some exceptions of course, but for the most part I just hear a lot of potential going down the tubes. There seems to be a fair amount of layering going on, but the tracks still come off feeling rather minimal, which I view as a positive trait here. Now, many of the songs are overly consistent or repetitive for their length (most of the songs run more than seven or eight minutes), but under different circumstances bits and pieces of this release could make a strong record. "Flying" is by far the best composition, not to mention the longest at 12:18, but the mood is darker and a bit more coherent than the other pieces, bringing in some abrasive distortion quietly breaking through ethereal ambient textures and some distant vocal samples. Sadly this is one of those CD-R's that causes me to distrust the medium, as my copy is defective and won't play past the sixth track, so... In addition to the lame record title, the layout does nothing for me. The cover has a silly manipulated painting with goofy icons of CD's and headphones pasted into it, and the back cover has a pixilated enlargement of a portion of the front cover on it with the tracklist. That's it. The CD-R is inside and it's all sealed in a thin plastic sleeve. It's all pretty unprofessional in my opinion, namely due to the fact that the disc itself is defective, but whatever. If you want to try your luck it's hand-numbered of 50 copies, and a few are probably left. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and let this one off with a 3/10, which would likely have been a 4/10 if the disc had played all the way through... but I can't be sure of that.
[Rape Art]
Running time - 78:56, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Flying]
Rape Art Productions - http://www.rapeartprods.tk
