This entire affair was recorded live to minidisk with no editing or overdubs in July of 2003. Of course the track separators aren't technically necessary as everything runs together (it's admitted in the layout that they're only there for convenience - which is nice), and the markers don't always indicate a direct change of pace, but the tracks range in length from barely a minute to more than 20 minutes. Things start out with a good middleground set of distorted textures that aren't soft but aren't over the top either. As a few pieces progress everything definitely rises and falls in volume level and amount of sheer distorted attack, at times getting very grating and shrill, while other portions remain much quieter and more subdued. "Bap and Kimchee" even uses a lot of thick, rumbling low-end that I would classify as having an ambient undercurrent, were it not for some of the clearer tones swirling in and out of the foreground. That contrast pretty much sets the stage for the remaining 30+ minutes. Lots of movement, lots of sparse dropouts, a few more rhythmic, crunching bursts, explosive twists of high-end... and so on. The layout appears to be printed on matte paper from a decent home printer or something, with very muted colors that almost look like black and white with some green lettering. It's fairly clean and simple, a little bland, but I've seen worse, of course. This release seems a bit more minimal than some of the other Stimbox material I've heard, which works as a positive here because everything has room to breathe. It's not generic pedal to the metal harsh noise by any means, but at the same time, I have heard countless harsh noise CD's, cassettes, and vinyl releases over the years that sound not unlike this, so... it's still not the most interesting thing in the world to me. I certainly feel that the warmth and clarity of the recording has a really nice sense of depth to it, and this is decent. I can't not mention that there's no need for it to run for more than 70 friggin' minutes since it's a fairly consistent release as a whole that never truly deviates from its path, but... hey, I've never been a diehard fan of this particular niche anyway.
[Hebi Like a Snake]
Running time - 71:12, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Chijimi and Banchan, Bap and Kimchee]
Stimbox - http://stimbox.harshnoise.com
