Review: Richard Ramirez/Skin Crime “Pleasure, Commerce & Disease” CD

This release sees these two rather notable noise artists collaborating by mail for four tracks of raw harsh noise in barely under an hour. Expect lengthy compositions with shitloads of scorching midrange distortion using lots of high-end ferocity and a hell of a bite, using a little bit of panning and fairly regular manipulations that rarely take things too far from the same general direction for too long. I've not heard a terribly large amount from either of these artists (especially Skin Crime) as I'm very finicky about harsh noise, and with Ramirez I'm usually either for it or very much bored by it, but despite not being the most diverse piece of work (unsurprisingly - let's face it, most people know what to expect here) I think that this material keeps things moving just enough to remain consistent without being dull. There are, for example, a good number of spurts where more atmospheric levels of experimentation are reached - be it through faint feedback, slightly sparser arrangements, variations in volume level or severity of distortion, etc. - as opposed to the recent PACrec outing from The Rita, for example, which is literally almost an hour of the exact same thing. But the sound here is raw without going too far, it's not muddy or senselessly overloaded, it's loud and in your face with a lot of acerbic texture to it, and not every track sounds identical by any means. "Some Sedatives", for example, revolves around very soft low-end rumbles that carry along subtly, slowly starting to increase in volume and density around eight minutes in before breaking into an excellent fit of caustic and unique distortion that cuts out almost as quickly as it appeared. "This is the Body I Once Occupied" is more aggressive, but similarly possesses a very different atmosphere from the other songs, with a more spacious sort of scattered approach that eventually leads into some of the thickest distorted attacks of the disc, though it's also the most diverse - even letting some percussive textures see the light in another of the more minimal segments, while I believe some heavily manipulated vocals play a role elsewhere. "Days Become Numbered" is the longest piece at almost 17 minutes, also relatively consistent, but with some wild feedback and nice movement going on in the lower levels that's ominously suggestive but far from obvious... these little touches definitely make a difference in the end result, though. Meanwhile, opener "The Smell of Hospitals" is the most consistent composition from start to finish, beating things into place before the other tracks start to offer more of a slight departure. The disc comes in a slim cardboard slipcase with very little color and imagery relating to the title of the record, with credits on the back for a simple presentation that gets the job done. Good stuff, overall. There's enough movement and feeling with this one to create a nice, consistent aesthetic that spans everything. Certainly better than average when it comes to harsh styles...