Review: Immaculate:Grotesque/A Fail Association “Virgin” CS

Immaculate:Grotesque takes side A with an untitled piece that opens using a lighter style of wispy, crackling distortion than what I'm used to hearing from his work, using a little bit of layering to add some density, but revolving largely around thinner veils of distortion that are based more in the upper midrange of tones. A few minutes in a quick shift takes place and things get thicker and lower, but the overall delivery is stall rather stripped down and sparse, though things eventually do start to build into a more aggressive and full sounding style. Once it reaches its apex in volume and intensity, things tend to stay the same for the remainder of the track. There's some subtle movement and shifting going on as a more violent distortion and some layering is involved, and even though it gets a bit tedious it's interesting the way things very carefully build up to that point. And, thankfully, the end of the track does get more vibrant and powerful. Next up is A Fail Association, whose track is also without a title, beginning very softly with an eerie and distant sound before launching into an almost ridiculously oppressive wall of distortion that is, quite honestly, some of the thickest and most aggressively overdriven distortion I've heard in some time. Things kind of sway back and forth from dense low-end to ripping midrange squeals - all loud, all in your face. There's more chaotic movement and texture going on throughout after the initial wave settles in, but it's a pretty consistent kicking of the ass, and there's some shit going on that really tears the ol' ears to shreds. The cassette is sealed inside of two envelopes wrapped in a thin layer of vellum. The second envelope is sealed with an embossed gold sticker, and inside is the cassette itself enclosed in an embossed wedding invitation, complete with decorative gloss printing and all that jazz. It's certainly an ironic, if not humorous presentation for a harsh noise release. Needless to say no one on the face of this planet will ever be losing their virginity to this cassette! Overall this is a solid release, but it's a little redundant for my tastes. I'm a big fan of Immaculate:Grotesque, but I don't find this track to be as interesting or forceful as his other recent works. And while A Fail Association takes the cake on this one, I'm not used to hearing such massively long compositions from the project (quite the opposite, in fact), so in some ways its massive brutality wears out after the initial blast. Not bad though, and I'll be damned if the packaging isn't completely unexpected!