Contrite Heart — Idolatry

Idolatry is a two-track journey into extreme crude/ lo-fi walled noise from this up-and-coming Florida project, which is all the work of Ivan Reash ( Bastard Sword, Sex With Dead Slaves, self-named releases). Each track here runs around the twenty-minute mark, and each is as raw as the other.

This is a digital release on Cincinnati, Ohio's Stemms Audio. For cover art, we get what looks like a medieval illustration of a naked small person on a stone ball presenting an animal skull to a tall/ head dressed woman.

The first track is simply named “_A”, and it’s built around an extremely muffled-yet-dense mix of purring low-end industrial churn, galloping knock, thinner juddering, and a haze of rolling & shunting sub-tones. The ‘wall’ is both detailed & ill-defined, as your mind fights to hang on for some time to at least one pattern/ textural shape- but no matter how hard you try, your concentration breaks and links onto another. It’s a wonderfully disorienting & confusing experience, which really seems to pull you in deeper & deeper.

Next we have “_B”, and this is once again very crude- but maybe a bit busier than the first. It’s built around a blend of constantly rolling machine-wheel tone, jugging rumble, and a selection of spoke-like reels, knocks, and trundle. I’d say this track is akin to more layered/ detailed field sound recordings- though the ‘wall’ feel remains. Along its length we get a few out-of-pattern/ tones, which are most rewarding- on the whole it’s way easier to define/ follow the patterns, but that in itself has its own rewards.

I’d heard some of Ivan’s solo release, which I very much liked, but this is my first taster of Contrite Heart, and once again I’m highly impressed with what I’m hearing on Idolatry. If you like your ‘walls’ crude-yet-detailed, this is well worth checking out!. I wanted to give this three & half, but as we only do whole marks, I’ve gone for a three.