Black Leather Jesus — 24/7
Really if you have any knowledge of the American noise scene; you should be aware of this long-running, highly prolific, and notorious noise collective. Originally formed 1989 & continually centered around American maker Richard Ramirez, with his husband Sean E. Matzus joining the center of the project some years back. The collective has had a fairly shifting supporting line-up over the years, with at points BLJ having as many as 13 members. In all the project has released nearing 100 releases, and each of these has mined the more seared & extremes of noise, industrial texturing, junk metal abuse, and walled noise. And thorough-out the existence of the project the one thing that’s kept constant is the themes of homosexual S&M and gay bondage.
This release comes in the form of a C40 tape- which comes in a baggie. This features single sided red, black & white cover artwork, in a fold out mini poster form. On this we get a grim picture of a heavily bondage & stud wrapped male figure trussed up on the floor. I’m unsure how many copies there are of these, but I can’t see it been a huge pressing.
So onto the noise within, and the first sides track opens with a rough ‘n’ fairly lose blend of churning & muffled sub-ambience. This is topped with a mix of thin-yet-crusty static jittering, loose trails of forking noise, blunt & crude judders, and uneven sub-tone swipes of buzzing, billowing, and cluttering noise. As the track moves towards its seventh minute the whole thing starts to become a bit searing & active- with more rapid sways of cluttering ‘n’ searing noise matter moving across the whole thing, and this is underfed by buried trails of buzzing ‘n’ forking sweeps. As the track progresses on we get sudden build-ups of a wall like clamoring crude-ness, longer forking stretchers, or tight spools of unwinding buzzings- with the whole thing nicely keeping your attention though-out. As BLJ go this track is very much in their noise jam type mode; and throughout the whole thing remains fairly loose in structure- yet they do keep returning to a key selection of textures.
Over onto side two, and this track opens up with a blend of deep ‘n’ bothersome grinding noise grain & wavering billow-bound drone- all creating this wonderful tight & sleazed feel, perfect for the theme of leather wrapped perversion. As the track moves on we get sudden rises of sourly forking noise, as well as sporadic hits of tight juddering ‘n’ jittering grinds of noise, & grainy noise sweeps. I really like the feeling of brooding-yet-pained tension that wraps around this whole track, and of the two I’d say this is my favorite- as it offers up a great mix of moody- almost wall like grain, with an uneasy blend of forking ‘n’ bluntly bothersome noise matter.
All in all 24/7 is another worthy addition to this project growing body of work. Each side of the tape offers up well-arranged, rewarding, yet seared & deeply sleazy noise craft for your enjoyment. And as of writing the label still have copies.