This is yet another in a string of quality releases from this excellent experimental noise project. Herein the material is still laid down using analog sources with no synths whatsoever, but these tracks certainly bring a harsher edge to Hum of the Druid's usual ambient approach. Make no mistake, there are still plenty of chilling dark ambient tones to be found, but there are also a lot of crispy distorted crunches and dense pulses of grating texture. The first three tracks are all fairly similar in this regard, using a thick brand of mid-grade distortion that at times becomes percussive in the way that it surges and falls back and forth with glitchy texture above more subdued ambient undercurrents, with each track running four to five minutes and "Intricacies of Normal Men" bringing in a subtly melodic hum to the background. "Crackling Earth Crust" tops nine minutes and is a little bit harsher in its take on a similar style of distortion and arrangements, becoming louder and more acerbic with some of its layering, but never abandoning a sense of feeling; while the six-and-a-half-minute "Thieves", by contrast, is much more restrained in its repetitiously swelling lulls and subtly melodic sensibilities. The overall character of "Adapt" is a little eerier as well, with a strange chill added to the hovering distorted textures and a little more movement provided in thinning things out and thickening them back up across various pieces of the puzzle. Another harsher outing, "Historically Cyclic" (another longer piece at eight minutes) even seems to employ some spurts of distorted shouting early on, though of course the vocals are so entrenched against the swirling distorted backbone that it's not very easy to decipher exactly what's happening there. Some of the metallic reverb effects towards the end don't really work for me, but I definitely think the vocals have a lot of potential for future exploration! Another lengthy excursion ends things off in "Breathing": A little over seven minutes opening with unusual ambient lulls cascading across one another with a bright, crisp sort of ethereality. This basically repeats for the duration of the track, creating a calm and almost hypnotic degree of persistence that's only mildly disturbed by a little bit of a dip in terms of those slightly "metallic" sounding reverb effects playing another role (there's just something about the nature of those effects that rubs me the wrong way). I'd say the sound quality on this one's a touch rawer than past efforts from Hum of the Druid as well, which may be entirely intentional based on the more aggressive nature of the work. I certainly have no quarrels with that, as it makes sense against the context of the compositions, and I don't feel like anything is lost as a result. As was the case with the debut full-length from the project, the CD-R is housed in a black digipack with some abstract artwork cut out and glued to the front, and a clean looking insert placed inside for track titles and recording information. For a D.I.Y. affair that sells for $6ppd in the US it looks pretty tasteful too, though of course I'm still hoping for a proper full-length from the project some day - be it on CD or vinyl. I'm pretty stunned that something of that nature hasn't materialized yet, but it can't be far off, as this project delivers time and time again. This particular release is limited to 76 copies and has nearly sold out, so act fast if you're interested. I wouldn't call this Hum of the Druid's finest work to date (mainly because many of the tracks sound a little too similar to one another), but it's nice to hear a departure from the straight dark ambient direction, and this is certainly not a weak effort. Nice work, and I'll still be looking forward to hearing more.
[Barbituarian]
Running time - 55:57, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Filth Remission, Thieves, Adapt]
Hum of the Druid - http://druid.thekatana.com
