Crash At Every Speed — Departure Crash

Departure Crash is a new full-length album from Richard Ramirez feed-back focused wall noise project Crash At Every Speed. The release comes in the form of a five-track CD/ digital download album on Iowa based noise label Breaching Static.

I’m reviewing the digital download version of the release- but from pics I’ve seen the physical release comes in the form of a jewel case, which features a coloured inlay taking in two wintery landscape pictures of the same location- one right way up, the other upside down. Normally this project focuses in on purely car crash themed wall noise, but this releases the title, artwork and some of the textures used to suggest an aircraft crash…. though the last two tracks do feature car crash-related dialogue samples, so maybe it’s themed around both plane & car crashes?.

The Crash At Every Speed has been active since 2001-and has remained fairly active since then, with the project putting on near on forty releases- taking split, shorts, and full length releases like Departure Crash.  I must say it's a good few years since I’ve personally heard/ reviewed anything from the project....so it's nice to check in with the project again.

Each of the tracks here is numbered/untitled- so first out we have just shy of thirteen minutes of 1. Here we find a mid-range rushing ‘n’ searing noise texture- set on top of a churning 'n' chugging drone wash- these elements are fed together to create an encasing wall, which to me sounded like something at speed travelling through a battering rainstorm. The ‘wall’ features some nice subtle audio illustrations- because at points it sounds like one layer is slowing/ easing back, then later the other one is- but in reality the tracks very fixed/ set.  2 is most definitely where I’m getting the aeroplane vibes from- as we find a tight-yet-coldly jangling drone, which is set in this busy sea of feasting metallic clunking- all creating a great brooding rush of a track.

By 3 we find bleak air like droning, set against a backdrop of rapidly searing ‘n’ roasting noise. Near the beginning there feels a little play/ shift in the sear, but the farther we go in this seems to die back. As the track progresses I start making out a moody sort of sub-industrial feel in the guts of the track.  With track 4 we move into more bass bound and crusty territory- as we find a deep ‘n’ rib cage-rattling billow, which is surrounded by static squiggles/ slices. At around the midway point, we get a reverbed and slightly hazed audio recording about a car crash brought in with the ‘wall’ before we drop back into just noise once more, and the mix of billowing and slicing noise is most satisfying.

Lastly we of course we have 5, and this is another long track that comes in just shy of the thirteen-minute mark. It kicks off with a disturbing inside a speeding car recording- where two chavs are high on drink & drugs just before the crash. When the ‘wall’ comes in it’s very much a hiss-based affair- as Ramirez brings together muffled layers of droning hiss, roasting hiss, and swirling hiss- the whole ‘wall’ has a wonderful pressing and airless quality. This ‘wall’ is a lot looser and drifting than the other tracks here, with the hiss patterns altering and shifting over a fair bit over its length, with the whole ‘wall’ having a nice disorientating quality too.

As you would expect from a noise marker of Ramirez calibre and statue this release is very well thought out, with both skilful & creative use of noise.  If you’d like to score a copy head  here