Cloaca — Almsgiver

Five tracks, one minute per track made up of noises from guitar pedals and the mixing board. My first thought prior to hearing this was “this is Soliloquy For Lilith, as covered by Napalm Death”. And that thought was correct, and its good. However, this is apparently part of a series (five in five) from the label Silber Records, and just the latest release in that series.

From the opener “Edict” you are treated to a mid to high pitched drone that doesn’t out stay it’s welcome, doesn’t morph into some twenty minute prog rock noodlings, just has a deeper noise shifted across it and then stops.

Track two, “Anfractuous”, is almost the last note hit before a song finishes drawn out for one minute. And then we have the high end drone of “Deciduous”. There isn’t a lot you can do in a minute, but what you are given from each track is a spartan and raw drone piece that shifts onwards before you even have chance to appreciate it.

This music is quite basic, but that simplicity gives it a profoundness that makes you wish some tracks were just a little longer than they are allowed to be.

This is a really interesting idea that, I think, both stretches and limits a bands creativity by giving a band a time and a track limit to work within. Given that, it can either work or fail. In this instance it’s worked, and the band have created something really quite wonderful and frustrating: you want more, but more you do not get.