This lengthy cassette compiles 18 tracks from 18 different experimental artists from Australia. The bulk of the material is in the harsh noise vein, from which few tracks truly stand out, but there are some other pieces (i.e. not harsh noise) that are fairly strong. Wit opens with "Omdmm(2)". Consisting entirely of eerie feedback, it's a very minimal piece that creates a good mood. With Exposed Nerve's contribution is rather generic, raw harsh noise. It is a bit more atmospheric than most, but I still find it less than interesting. Miles Brown's piece is similar, but much quieter, while Chrysalis throws some piercing vocal shrieks into the mix. Toycutter's "Sea of Lovers" uses numerous quick samples mixed in with stuttered harsh noise and feedback tones, occasionally bringing in sparse programmed beats out of nowhere for some odd reason. I actually like this, but it's a little too disjointed and sort of... silly, maybe? I'm just not sure what the goal is here. Near Earth Objects' piece is a bit longer than most of the others, based around throbbing low-end and ethereal ambient textures with slight hints of melody. Rats With Wings' "Weak Little Cunt" is introduced by the sample from which its name comes, and then it collapses into a flurry of dense, rather typical harsh noise where the rawness gets in the way of the details. Isomer kicks off "United Front Disco" using bleak ambient soundscapes with some samples and light distortion in the background, gradually working to the center as heavily treated garbled vocals and samples take over, later fading back to a calmer, smoother set of tones and drones. The ridiculously titled "Ass Biting Midget Power vs. Slappy the Pinhead", by Agit8 and Smallcock, is a rather abrasively minimal venture with some earsplitting treble, and very little low-end to speak of! There's no real layering or anything, and the piece ends quite quickly (thankfully). Starting off side B are Mark Harwood and Rodney Cooper with definitely one of the most unique pieces - not too harsh, not particularly ambient - the very atypical sounds and textures create a truly unusual composition. I'm not totally into it, but most of the track is definitely different than any experimental noise I've come across before, and that deserves credit. The condensed "Threatcon" is totally raw harsh noise from Australia's most infamous project, Streicher. I always expect more of a power electronics edge from Streicher, but the general style tends towards straightforward harsh electronics, and is honestly rarely as strong as I usually hope for. Sokuseki-Men's "Harsh Australian Son" is typical harsh noise, minimal and rough around the edges. It's got some nice low-end, but nothing really jumps out at me. DLS 10 offers up abrasive distortion with underlying musical notes, fairly dense and monotonous. One of my favorites is certainly "Things Fall Apart" from Undecisive God, eerily layering feedback tones, this definitely stands out from the pack quite a bit, fairly hypnotic in its repetition it's a really nice piece. Lots of delay and shuffling layers of spacious distorted bursts comes courtesy of C-Scan, which is a bit more in your face than many of the other harsh pieces. As a huge Halo fan I'm very pleased to see them participating here, as well as impressed that they would take part in the endeavor with a great untitled piece with tons of resonating string grating and thick percussion. The "song" does end abruptly and all too soon, though... I'm talking very brief. Like Streicher, Kunt's track has been edited for time, made up of simple loops and such with lots of midrange distortion. Nothing special. And then we have the interestingly named Rancid Shitwank ending things off with totally biting, piercing distorted shrieks - by far the most insane and aggressive piece, displaying a nice recording for being live (recorded at Haz Music Derby in May of 2002). The cassette comes fairly professionally packaged in a full color sleeve with full color art on each side of the cassette as well. All of the imagery is dark and consistent, using little color, and repeating shots of strange sculptures that have a decaying sort of industrial skeleton look going on. In addition to the tracklist, contact information for each artist is included, and that's sufficient in my opinion. Not bad. It's a bit long for a cassette, but this is an admirable effort, and I've been introduced to some interesting projects that I had never heard of before, which is always a plus.
[Cipher]
Running time - 94:00 (approximately), Tracks: 18
[Notable tracks: Wit, Near Earth Objects, Isomer, Mark Harwood and Rodney Cooper, Undecisive God, Halo]
Cipher Productions - http://www.cipherproductions.cjb.net
