I've never heard of this experimental noise project before, but this disc offers up about an hour of fairly solid dark ambient material that dates back to 2003. Opener "War", despite its title, is actually a pretty laidback piece, using low-end hums and rumbles with machinated textures and various lulls of eerie dark ambient soundscapes; while "Everything is War" similarly takes a very stripped down road to minimal dark ambient in seven minutes of deep pulses and occasionally resonant clankings. "I" is actually quite similar, though ironically somewhat less interesting despite its more concise running time. 13+ minute "The Loneliest Fool" is evenmore restrained, building in over the course of six to seven minutes with practically inaudible smatterings of low-end and shuffling textures before more volume starts to fill the space as some distant percussive sounds rise to the center. Just when it feels like the CD might take too dull and one-sided a path, "Knee Deep in My Own Blood" finally changes it up with three minutes of thin, wispy harsh noise over rigid feedback textures and a grating sense of movement. Not the most intense or intereseting slab of harsh noise in the world, but a welcome kick in the teeth nonetheless - definitely well placed. I take minor issue with the way that the track immediately cuts off at the end as the sparse, chiming rings of "This Womb" suddenly take its place, but what can you do? "I Love You" is an ironic title as well, as the mere two-and-a-half minutes of brooding swells and drones within create a pretty hateful vibe that makes for my favorite moments of the disc. A shame it's by far the shortest composition herein! Thankfully the 12-minute "Birth" ends on a strong note, building on the menacing foundation of "I Love You" and adding in a little more movement and texture than many of the other tracks, so it follows a minimal path that still centers around hypnotic repetition, but it's more interesting and powerful as a result of its added nuances. From a visual standpoint I will give the project credit for taking a very different road. The illustrations are a very atypical for dark ambient releases, and despite the fact that there are no vocals on the CD, the massive amounts of text included to offer insight as to the meaning/inspiration behind the material are a nice touch. That being said, I don't particularly care for the look of the packaging, as I don't feel like the aesthetic is but so much of a match for the music, and I also don't really identify with any of the sentiments expressed through the text either, but... I can at least appreciate it for what it is, and respect the artist in taking a different road from the norm. I'm not terribly impressed by the disc as a whole, but it's not bad either, and it has been a few years since its creation. I'm not sure what the project is up to these days, but there's enough value here to where I'd be curious to hear their future output, because the only real complaint I have with this outing is that too many of the selections are similar to one another in their overly simplistic and plain delivery. "Birth" is a really good indicator of where they should focus their attention though, because those odd and unexpected melodies that seep in towards the final moments are really interesting. We'll see?
[Dark Seeds]
Running time - 55:22, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: I Love You, Birth]
Love Power Experiment - http://www.sexiswar.com
