Ha, now this is kind of a kick. The debut full-length for this Norwegian act is packaged in a very strange yet striking package: A flat white digipack with very faint images of a tree printed in a clear gloss overlay and a sticker with the band name and album title in black at the top corner. All other information (what little is proved) is printed along the outer ring of the disc itself. Very unusual. It looks like it would sound like Sigur R?s or something like that - either something really chilled out and melodic in a vaguely experimental manner, or some kind of lush indie rock. But instead, opener "Ryger" is a little over two minutes of glitchy distorted noise, and that sets the tone for what is in actuality a strong experimental noise outing that runs nearly an hour in total length, despite containing a mere five tracks. "?ven" is much more minimal and somewhat ambient in nature at the start, retaining some of the glitchy electronic blips over a scraping sort of back and forth motion, gradually fading in and out some crisp midrange sizzles - slowly getting louder and slightly busier throughout. The nearly 16-minute "M?nchausen by Proxy" is harsh through and through, though subtly atmospheric amidst the wails of distorted crunches with some low-end hints at melody, and with a fairly persistent rhythmic loop at certain points. "Gular" is another shorter piece at four-and-a-half minutes, not to mention the quietest and most spacious of the compositions - silent or barely audible during many passages. The massive 26+ minute title track closes and rather quickly surges into bursts of crystal clear spurts of electronic noise that have somewhat of a spacey undercurrent happening, later dropping back to a few more melodic tinges and lots of thick low-end amidst the constantly fluttering foreground glitches. Eventually things erupt into harshness, and again drop back to a near silent lull of ambient hums/resonant blips, making for quite a varied ride. The recording here is also worth mentioning because it strikes me as expertly clear, while still a little dirty at the outskirts, which is really quite effective in making these compositions rather interesting and crisply detailed. This project is certainly not rewriting the book at all, but there's something curiously effective about this work. I can't place what it is in particular that I like about it, but for some reason it sits well with me and comes off as more interesting than most of the predominantly harsh noise that I come across. Good work. I've never even heard of this project before, but this is an intriguing debut...
[Roggbif]
Running time - 57:35, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: ?ven, Gular]
Roggbif Records - http://www.roggbif.com/ryfylke/
