Review: Skin Suit Highway “Mutant” CD

Right on the heels of the "Phantom" debut, here are three more untitled tracks of harsh noise from this new project. This time around the tracks are a touch longer, but still relatively straightforward with lots of crunching distortion and wavering movements carrying things along. At times you can hear faint musical notes breaking through, which could be a hint at the source material (Radio, horror movies, who knows? The latter seems to be a visual theme, so that could be something.), and such moments do provide some variety, though it's nothing that hasn't been done before and can at times break up the aggression a little too much (i.e. feel out of place). The last track is eight minutes, which seems a tad long, but there are some nice movements that make it stand apart from the other two selections, which are honestly very similar to one another. Like the other two the song starts and stops immediately without any sort of gradual beginning/end, but overall it comes across as more suggestive and thought out, which works nicely. Also just like the last release from the project the CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with color xeroxed artwork on fluorescent green paper, and all of the imagery relates to the title of the disc, while almost no other information appears sans contacts. When all is said and done this is a little different than the "Phantom" EP, but it's not as interesting to me. I don't know, I think the last track is the most promising of the bunch as it has its own sound, whereas the first two are overly redundant and typical. I think "Phantom" was able to take five relatively short tracks and get things over with quickly while allowing each composition to kind of offer its own subtle differences, while there's only one long song here that comes off as effective and different from ground that the project has already tread. So, this isn't bad per se, but it's a little more expected and one-sided in its entirety. Aesthetically I have to give the project credit for having a starkly individual visual presence however, and that's something that I'm still curious to see unfold.