This is a split/collaborative CD offering up a few individual tracks from each artist as well as two spontaneous collaboration tracks. Mr. Ski Mask opens with "The Roehm Purge", consisting of melodic synths, it' repetitive and more musical than expected, but not bad at all. "Soundtrack From My Obsessive Mind" is similar but more chaotic and sort of spacey and weird (not as atmospheric), and "March of the Bucketman" is totally goofy crap, complete with programmed beats and accordion-like synthesizers - absolutely lame compared to the other tracks. Ripit displays raw harsh noise with some highly distorted vocals in "What Can I See?", but it's not very menacing at all, it sounds sort of hokey to be honest. "Not Much!" is much thicker and more subtle, and in my opinion more enjoyable as a result... with distortion caving in on itself and fighting to be heard. All of Tote Stadt's tracks were recorded live in November 2002, so there's a lot of rugged noise with a death industrial sort of vibe. Yelling vocals under deep effects, pulsating tones and windy midrange, and programmed beats (nothing too over the top) add some interest to the tracks, but unfortunately the live recording environment leaves things feeling flat and distant, and the majority of each composition feels like it gets lost. The collaborative tracks aren't really that interesting to me. There are certain individual elements that sound similar to the three artists' own work, but honestly I feel like some of the feeling is lost, and a lot of the weird sort of cheesiness that I hear in the Ripit and Mr. Ski Mask material tends to dominate. There are some nice harsh loops and rumbling undercurrents, but they're usually overshadowed by foreground sounds that don't do anything for me. The CD-R comes in a jewel case with xeroxed packaging that has a nice cut and paste look to it with some handwritten text and such over electrical diagrams. It's pretty basic, but it looks alright, and I think it works. This is indeed a strange release. I know from prior work that Tote Stadt is quite good, and better than represented by these recordings, and both Ripit and Mr. Ski Mask exhibit potential... but as a whole it's not the most interesting work I've encountered as of late.
[Radio Obsolete]
Running time - 58:16, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: The Roehm Purge, Not Much!, Infernal Machine/Wilkommen! (live)]
Radio Obsolete Recordings - http://www.geocities.com/tote_stadt/
