Here's a collection of 12 tracks of experimental noise, starting off with one hellishly destructive contrast thanks to a quiet opening track from Derivative, followed by a blazing assault of piercingly loud, chaotic, blistering harsh noise from Cama (remixed by The Annoying Bastard). A bit more interesting and atmospheric is "Ruin [nothing.ever.matters]", by GM Electronics. The piece is relatively calm, using smoldering distortion and ambient textures, as well as what seems to be some manipulated vocal work in the distance. Douglas Nine offers up an untitled track of rather tasteful minimal harsh noise that in my opinion is destroyed by the goofy and unnecessary "I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you?" sample at the beginning. (Why do people do that shit?) Contra's "New Times" is the first track that I would actually classify as "harsh pop", what with its lightly distorted beats, samples, and generally more lighthearted feel. I actually enjoy this piece, though I must say that it doesn't fit in with the other songs very much. One of my personal favorites in the harsh noise realm, Ungeromimizu (Norway), throws out an enormous six-minute assault of crisp, crackling harsh noise with some brutal stereo effects and raging distorted vocal torture. There are also some samples and some starling shifts in volume, so things definitely don't stagnate. This piece is about 10 times as long as the average Ungeromimizu track, so it comes as quite a surprise! Nervous' 7+ minute "We Have Confidence" is an excellent dark ambient composition with some nice subtlety to the recording, absolutely one of the most promising tracks herein. Like Contra, Nut for Trendy Ears doesn't really fit in here, except that their contribution ("It's 'cuz of Jesus") is cheesy and ineffective rather than simply being an interesting track that feels out of place. Pine Tree State Mind Control takes up almost six minutes with a nice mix of harsh noise and death industrial textures. It's not as strong as some of their other material that I've heard, but it's certainly not bad. Ukuphambana fails to interests me "Refried Negotiation": Seven minutes of somewhat dark ambient Casio goofiness that just doesn't make sense to me. The same goes for Yellow Monkey's "Little Trip", which sounds to me like a mishmash of video game samples and rumbling bass tones... except that it goes on, and on, and on for more than seven minutes. Excessive is an understatement. The Annoying Bastard's remix of Aphex Twin's "Inkey $" actually isn't that bad, it's short and to the point, which gets the job done. The CD-R comes in a tastefully xeroxed sleeve that has a collaged D.I.Y. look to it that doesn't really bother me. The sleeve folds out to reveal the tracklist and some additional artwork, and the backside is almost entirely black and shows a dark gray image that looks like a yearbook photo or something. My only complaint is that there is no contact information for any of the contributing artists. When all is said and done this is your basic compilation: Some of it's great, some of it's okay, and some of it totally sucks. It's a little bit long, so cutting off a few of the weaker tracks might have helped, but I still would have preferred to see more information about the artists included with the packaging. At least an address for each group would have been nice. Not bad, though. I've seen and heard worse.
[Legion Sudan]
Running time - 60:00, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: GM Electronics, Contra, Ungeromimizu, Nervous]
Legion Sudan - http://www.angelfire.com/apes/legionsudan/
