Armenia — Omnis Anima Malus

Here’s another pro-pressed, professional-looking CD release from Karo Productions, with nine tracks of burning harsh noise from Armenia - the work of Leonardo Sabatto from Ecuador. Omnis Anima Malus operates in a similar territory to the Amplex album I reviewed recently, which is not surprising since Sabatto was also involved in that release; so we get lots of brute harsh noise which relies on force and texture, not technical cut-ups, or processing that reaches toward electroacoustic music.

‘Atahualpa Yupanki,’ the opening track, has a nice layer of delicate treble textures, which is foregrounded throughout the piece, whilst synth filter squall and sometimes quiet loops of clanging work away beneath it. The second offering, ‘Blunt Force Trauma,’ begins with what sounds like a blown-out hoover, leading into fast-moving harsh noise, and, unexpectedly, a buried vocal song; however, the order of the day is sounds buckling under their own weight, and here there is plenty of saturated and cracking noise. ‘Monumento A La Estupidez - Venerandi Pietas Observantia,’ the third work, again opens strongly, this time with a blizzard of squall; once this subsides, the track is dominated by a skittering, broken pattern of tonal feedback, which gives it a weird propulsion. After this, the next piece, ‘Festering Wound,’ takes the intensity down a few notches, and presents a more subdued, cryptic angle that still operates in the same territory as the preceding tracks; ‘Post Incision Traumatism - Deprived Of Eyelids,’ which follows, goes the other way, with a genuinely affecting downpour of treble and feedback which is truly beautiful, this scatters into more nice treble textures accompanied by a hovering synth loop - its a great track, powerful from beginning to end. The sixth piece, ‘Paraiso Truncado - Ruidosa Serenata De Imperceptibles Loops,’ is dominated by stinging treble noise and feedback, with sounds breaking up as they attempt to force their way through to the front of the sound field - an unrelenting and invigorating blast. ‘Spasmo’ is up next, and sees primitive synth sounds periodically fighting their way out of machine-like harsh noise; whether deliberate or not, the synth sounds have an animal-like quality which contrasts with the more monolithic noise surrounding them. The penultimate track, ‘Pedazo De Mierda,’ starts off somewhat unfocussed, with several layers of sounds arranged but to no sense of real purpose; oddly, this gives it a blurry, dreamlike feel, and actually works very well on that level. ‘New Slavery - Under De-Construction - Tissue Of Lies,’ the final work, is very much back to the grindstone, with Armenia unleashing another turbulent sea of immersive, trebly skree that actually has long passages where it is essentially static, closing the album effectively.

Much like the Amplex album reviewed recently, this sits in the nice territory where HNW gets very dynamic, or where harsh noise obsesses over texture; so, again, it’s recommended to those who enjoy harsh noise reduced to the building blocks of noise. This is not to suggest that Omnis Anima Malus is without tricks or careful construction - the moments where atmospheric loops of synth are deployed, or indeed the vocal interlude, point to the creativity of Armenia - but as stated earlier this is not an album of technical cut-ups, signposted collage work, or forensic electroacoustic processing. Having said that, the tone of the album is not exactly pummelling destruction - it rarely feels like an assault on the listener, more an exploration of the sounds of harsh noise.