Condo Horro — Gutted
Behind Condo Horro is long-term experimental/ noise artists Peter Keller- who is also behind the excellent Spectral Wall/ ANW project Geisst, as well as Bacillus, Dirac Sea, PTRKLLR, & Unser Verhängnis. Condo Horro has been active since 2015, and thus far has released coming on for twenty releases. Just like his work with Geisst, Keller takes HNW as a starting point for Condo Horro- but sculpts it’s sound into something wholly individual & distinctive with-in the genre-blending in elements of seared harmonic drone, junk metal, & moody experimentation to the HNW template.
Before we get into the ‘walls’ themselves we must mention the C64 release- as it’s quite distinctive in its own right. The tape comes in a polycase tape case- this features monochrome artwork, then the whole thing is presented in a piece of bent steel- it's covered with uniformed holes, surface scratches, and a sticker with the release artwork on- this is all tied together by weaving in & out tread of steel . All in all a fairly unique, balky yet fitting bit of packaging. Sadly the physical version of the release is now all sold out- so the digital download is your only option now.
The release takes in three tracks- two on side A, and one on side B. And opening the album is the just over eighteen minutes of “Rip out the Insides Until Nothing Is Left”. This sees the merging of a murky & distant liquid like rumble, a constantly cluttering mesh of chopping static swim, and this very buried ringing like harmonic drone. The whole thing feels both wonderful overloaded, yet moodily searing- create a most effective feeling akin to been trapped in a sea of collapsing buildings.
Next we have the just over fifteen & a half minutes of "History Demolished"- here we get a layered blend of hovering almost spaceship simmer, banks of small feasting static grain & scape, and a mesh of subtle grind mid-to-higher pitched noise droning. As the track progresses a more bleakly harmonic drift can be made more & more clearly within the mass, and this all makes for a wonderful moody & highly captivating second track.
And taking up the remain lion share/ second side of the release we have "Crushed To Dust In The Empty Void". This thirty-four-minute track really deepens the wall craft even further- to begin with we get a blend of rapidly poking metal texturing, juddering & snapping spray can textures, and blunt drone sweeps. As we get deeper into the track we firstly get the slurred sways of semi harmonic roast, and this is fairly soon gets joined by wavering & whistling higher pitch points, and deeper harmonic plates of droning mood-making. It’s a real monster of a track with so much going on within the thickness, but through-out Keller keeps the whole thing balanced, highly compelling, and damn hauntingly moody.
Keller really is one of the most interesting & talented artists working with the HNW in 2018, and unlike some artists each of his projects have their own distinctive qualities & sound. It’s a real pity that the physical version of Gutted is all sold-out, because the excellent packaging really does add another dimension to this great release. In conclusion Gutted is pretty damn floorless, and yet another high point in his output.