Burial Ground/Dosis Letalis — Carnival Of Souls
The white-shelled tape features black printing on it- taking in hands on an organ, each projects name, and the film's tagline ‘A Story So Unusual- it will burn its self into your mind’. The tape comes in a clear case, which features a single-sided cover- this takes in a red & black color scheme, of the films original poster art & minimal texts. It came in an edition of 50 copies.
Released in 1962 Carnival of Souls told of a young church organist who is the sole survivor of a car crash. After the accident, she moves to a new town, fairly soon is haunted by strange ghoulish figures, and is pulled to an abandoned carnival on the out skitters of town. The film is a classy slice of creepy Americana, filmed in black & white- really making it the perfect film for a wall noise tribute.
Each project offers up a single thirty-minute slice of wall-matter, and each is untitled. So on side A, we have Burial Ground track- this opens with a few minute samples from the film- taking in eerily droning churn organ playing, and dialogue regarding the young women’s departure from the town. When the ‘wall’ kicks in, it’s a very rapid blend of rushing & buffeting tones- we have a grainy rolling texture, and tow/ three thinner wind baying like tones. The whole thing feels very much undefined & densely ghostly- which of course is most apt for the film. As the track progresses the ‘walls’ layers do shift & alter a bit; though it never moves too far away from the original tonal configurations- for example, the low-end becomes more churning & industrial like, or searing wash like. Or the thinner textures become more cluttering & pelting, bringing to mind whipping winter storms across barren western plains, or later they become more gritty & spitting in their attack. In conclusion, it’s certainly a densely weaved & eerier moody wall- I just found at times I wish where less textural deviation, more firmness and longer dwells in certain patterns- but that I think it's just my preference- as the whole thing is certainly very mood fitting to the film.
Flipping the tape over, and of course, we have Dosis Letalis track- this opens with a blend of eerierly jaunting church organ & light static texturing- with later a few hints of strange & deranged canned laughter. We get one sustained female scream, and we’re into the ‘wall’- it’s once again quite a buffeting & baying variety of HNW, but I found the textures a little clearer in their paths- we get a taut & tight blend of rich juddering & battering lows, weaved jittering grained mids, and a constant flow of thinner gritty descents. Together these elements create a very satisfying encasing bit of wall-craft, that’s very much edged by an eerier windswept vibe. Of the two tracks here I’d say I enjoyed this most, as this more focus & I really found my self-getting entranced by the layers of different patterns created via the wall.
I’ve always been a sucker for wall noise releases themed around horror & cult films, as I think HNW/ static texturing is the perfect alternative soundtrack. Both sides of this split are equally fine in their mood & theme fitting presences, making this a most worthy split- as this has a fairly scene generous pressing of 50 copies, you should still be able to hook a copy of this fairly easily.