Burial Ground — Phantasm
For those not in the know, the Phantasm series of movies follow the exploits of the Tall-man, a multi- dimensional grave robber who takes the newly dead & transports them back to his own planet to shrink them down into evil dwarfs. He also has control of these deadly flying metal spheres that have drills, and all manner of mutilating tools inside them. Battling against the Tall man is a middle aged balding ice cream van seller, a pre teen boy( who grows up through the movies), and a selection of other characters. All four movies are a very quirky & distinctive mix of horror, sci-fi, action & humour, and all four movies where written & directed by US cult director Don Coscarelli.
The set of four unlabeled CDR’s come in a four tray DVD case. The front cover features black & white artwork from the second Phantasm movie poster( of a women holding her hands in front of her eyes, but her eyes are on top of her hands) & on back cover we have the CDR track listing, along with another black & white still picture from Phantasm two; this time it’s of one of the Tall-Man’s suited goons with a one of the deadly spheres slicing & bloodly force it’s way out of his face.
Each disc features a single forty three to near on forty five minute track that's themed around each of the four films in the series. So opening up the set we have ‘Phantasm’, the track starts with a eerier sample from the movie of footsteps, building atmospheric music, weird jabbering dwarf sounds, and finally the Tall-man saying “the funeral is about the beginning, sir!”, then the wall kicks-in. The track is built around a rapid mixture of juddering ‘n’ billowing mid-ranged noise tone, which is weaved with one or two feasting static sub-tones. Underneath these is a distant low end burrowing like drone, and this seems to get more noticeable as the track progresses. The ‘wall’ is both dense & unmoving, save for a few subtle sub tone shifts & the growth of the low-end burrowing drone. On the whole I found this an rewarding slice of dense walled noise, with the sub-tones create a feeling of dimension with-in the wall, and the growing burrowing drone creating a foreboding feel.
On disc two we have “Phantasm II”, and this track starts with sample of one of the films female characters talking about the Tall-Man approaching towards her over Americans graveyard robed landscape. Pretty soon the ‘wall’ kicks in & it’s brutal mixture of blown-out ‘n’ slightly roaming low-end noise, and thinner bands of jittering/ billowing/smarting static texture. Though the ‘wall’ remains dense & thick through-out, and it never moves too far from its structural groundings; both textures here have a fairly shifting feel to them with there mixture of sludgy roasting/ boil swirling mist like interplay. This all creates quite a brutally captivating & malevolent feel to the ‘wall’. This disc is one of my favourites of the set; as it keeps you totally locked into it’s slowly shifting ‘n’ roasting vibe.
Disc three is taken up by “Lord Of the Dead”, and this starts with a sample of the Tall-Man's deadly spheres -first there's flying sound, then drilling into some one body sound, then we get some nice victim screams, then the ‘wall’ kicks in. It’s built around a fairly rapid mixture of juddering & condensed low-end mixed with chop ‘n’ churning mid -range static. The two tones remain fairly fixed in there brutal journey, through from time to time they do seem to semi snake around each other. Around the thirty two minute mark a more open jittering yet tight crisp static texture keeps cutting in and out of the track a few times- these burst last a few minutes a time. On the whole the tracks an effective enough slice of urgent, thick & mostly unmoving wall making.
So lastly on disc four we have “Oblivion”, and this starts with another movie sample this time it’s more in a soundtrack form with a swirling rendition of the films title theme. The ‘wall’ drops in around the minute mark, and it’s a churning white-out that features two maybe three closely run together noise textures- the tones mix together short billowing, stained roasting, and simplistic hissing static churns. This is another one of the highlights here, as Burial Ground really does manger to create a feel of intense shapeless white-out, yet the track still remains appealing for it’s full running time as you brain tries to find shape & form with-in the ‘wall’.
This CDR boxset offers up four fairly consistent slices of dense wall-making. Discs two & four discs are extremely effective, and the other two are rewarding enough too.
It’s always great to see someone else utilizing horror movies as a theme with-in walled noise, as it’s one of my favourite themes & HNW/ horror make great brutally bedfellows, so it’s great to see projects like Burial Ground been so passionate about that blend.