Circuit Wound — Fight Or Flight

American harsh noise project Circuit Wound has constantly active since the early 2000s, and it's been ages since I last listened to any of his new material. From what I remember I quite enjoyed his stuff, so I approached this CDr with interest and expectation.

What we have here is a single track of pure American-style harsh noise , around forty minutes long. This can't be bad, right?

The massive track seemingly consists of two separate layers (maybe two different sessions mixed together?), each firmly panned right and left, both quickly changing pace and tone and thus never allowing a dull moment. High pitch feedback is always paired by crunchy static or contact microphone bashing, and synth-like larsen effects are surmounted by a brooding mass of crackle and gargling. The sounds are quite balanced and the track proves to be a farily good piece of harsh noise, with a few weaker moments and maybe lack of careful editing here and there. Probably halving the length of the piece and picking only the best moments would have been best, but I guess it's too late now. Also, I'm still not sure if it was a problem with my headphones, my stereo or my copy but for the first five minutes or so I could only hear the right channel, which was a bit annoying.

In conclusion, this is an ok release. Nothing ground-breaking or incredibly good, but still a nice piece of American harsh noise. Not the best material I listened to from Circuit Wound, but still good. This CDr is limited to a mere 50 copies, so I'm not sure if you can still find it, so if you're curious about this project I recommend a visit to http://www.discogs.com/ Not to mention that a lot of his back catalog is still easily found.