Culver — Can You Read My Mind?
On Side one we have the track ‘Burning Mist’ which starts off with a slow doomy, wonky, slightly off-tune & bassy guitar loop that’s playing the same three notes over & over in a disturbing & unwell mantra like form over this pressing feedback air. By the three minute mark the track starts to become slower & even more introspective as the three notes drop to two and the ill at easy & unwell feedback sustain grows. By the five minute mark the solemn guitar mantra has stopped altogether & the unwell sustained feedback becomes more drone like, drilling, bleak & off-colour in its feel; as the tracks grey tone seems to simmer it’s ugly, sickly & ultra grim essence deep into you. As the track goes on you become more aware of the drones guitar back draft as it’s hit to cause more grim drone matter, yet Stokoe never attempts to vary or shift the unwell feeling of the track with harmonics or sweeter tones- he just keeps deepening the unforgiving, thick & very unwell feel.
Flipping over to Side two & we find the track ‘Seven Seeds’ which starts with a wavering, tone shifting & out of tune guitar loop which feels very, very unpleasant, unwell & sickly as if your high on some kind of mould covered & years out of date cough mixture. As the track goes on a growing feedback uneasy starts to build with this low down, unwell & evil sounding subterranean purring tone. The track has such a sludgy, unwell, nasty sound to it you can almost smell it- like a mix of mildew, decaying eggs & vomit. By the seven minute mark the whole track becomes more muffled & melting with a more numbing gone wrong metallic feel & bad breath wind storm kicking up from the guts of the track. The whole thing becomes a sickening wall of muffled, sludgy sound that seems to smother your in it’s sickly, gloppy & sour weight. Around the twelve minute mark the guitar starts to sound more roaring & slow motion chugging in it’s intent in the buzzing & simmering mesh of grim feedback. But instead of giving you respite this seems to hypnotically rock you deeper into the unwell heart of the track, as Stokoe deepens the decaying speaker feedback pockets. By the twenty minute mark it’s become more muffled & distant black storm like in it’s swirl 'n' slow draging really weighing you right down for the last pained & grim five minute dirge of the tracks life.
I’ll have to admit I’d rather become tired & bored with most drone based guitar soundscaping a few years back. But ‘Can You Read My Mind?’ has really made me rethink my thoughts about guitar based drone matter; as Culver really do tap into an original, unwell, nasty & sickening vein over both sides of this c48 tape. Really if you dig any kind of unpleasant, unwell & nasty sonics this is a must have item