Clive Henry — The Police Station
This release comes in the form of 3inch CDR on the Dutch Plague label, and is part of their series of Resident Evil themed release which take in works from the likes of Japans Female Harakiri, Netherlands based panic, and Irelands Where Is This.
The 3inch features just a single track that comes in at 19.07 mark, and as one would expect from Mr Henry- it’s a rather creative & cleverly structured bit of walled noise, which shifts through a several different sonic stages.
The track opens with thick weave of ultra cold snaking ‘n’ crackling textures- these seem to be worming their way into each other, like the sonic equivalent of watching rapidly sped-up footage of a spreading mass of brambles, which are engulfing everything in their spiky ‘n’ painful tangle. At around the two and a half minute mark the wall sudden stops & we get sample from the 2nd games chilling soundtrack, which mixers together tolling synth tones, creepy horror keyboard & synthetic piano weaves. By around the 4th minute a layer of wall roast is rising up above the games soundtrack, and just when you think it will total take over the track we get a seconds gap before we launch into another different ‘wall’. This new ‘wall’ is a taut ‘n’ tense mass of billowing ‘n’ burrowing low-end, which is wrapped with thinner jittering static grained crackle ‘n’ hazing texture. Once again this part of the track has quite a psychical feel to it, and to me it brings to mind ones head being pressed tightly between two loud & intensely purring chest freezers. As the track progress the taut ‘n’ dense purring seems to get more and more intense/ pressing in it’s feel, and at times you can almost physical feel your ears starting to numb from the focused bone chilling weight of the ‘wall’. Also as the ‘wall’ moves on the low-end elements seem to become more tumbling & descending in their feel, as if the ‘wall’ is fall into itself deep inside- yet the freezing sonic focus, the tension, and pace still remains the same.
It’s always a pleasure to review Mr Henry’s work as he always puts so much thought & effort into everything he does. The Police Station, is a small yet worthy addition to his growing body of walled noise work, and it really is a must have item for those who enjoy their ‘walls’ atmospheric yet creatively conceived.