I can't say I'm too into this UK project. Certain elements of this self-released effort aren't so bad, but as a whole there are a lot of problems that hold the material back, at least in my mind. First and foremost, if I must be so blunt, and I tend to be, I'm sorry to have to say that I find the layout for this release to be absolutely horrible. There's no way to skirt around the issue, I'm afraid. I actually find the album title to be quite interesting, but everything about the artwork is total garbage. The print quality is less than stellar, the imagery is boring and unprofessional... I just hate it, really. There are bits and pieces of it that could potentially be salvaged into other, more developed and professional looking ideas, but in its current form it's a mess that doesn't seem to apply to the music very much. And, since this is a music review, I'll get to that now. Within these 15 tracks are a range of beats, rhythms, distorted textures, and repetitive loops. I guess some people call this sort of thing "power noise", and to me there are certain industrial undertones here and there, with some harsh noise and ambient textures as well, but the beats are generally very prominent and sort of make this "more than experimental noise" for me. And that's fine, but I don't enjoy that many of the songs either. The obscured samples and driving beats in "Cthonian" are sort of cool in a raw, noisier take on mid-period Ministry sort of way, and "Build it Up and Knock it Down" really stands out (in a pretty good way) with its softer beats and synths, almost coming off as quirky trip-hop or something like that, but beyond that not a great deal catches my ear. However, I also have to give this an incomplete review because for some reason everything past the sixth track starts to choke up and won't play properly, despite numerous tries in two different CD players. I can definitely say that more than an hour of this material is entirely too much for one sitting. The songs are often too long and too redundant, so no way does the CD-R need to run for 64+ minutes. There are moments that I really find great promise in, but as a whole I'm not into it. Like I said, I only got through just under half of the disc before it stopped playing, but I can't imagine my overall opinion would be greatly different had I been able to experience the entire release. Sorry...
[self-released]
Running time - 64:17, Tracks: 15
[Notable tracks: Build it Up and Knock it Down]
Straiph - http://www.paximatmultimag.co.uk
