Die Neue Zeit — Cambodia Ashes
The first track, “The Big Black Ones”, is a dirty, nine minute wall; quite focussed and compressed to the middle of the frequency range. It does have a prominent bass foundation and trebly layers, but the middle frequencies surge strongest and most actively. Swirling around and chopping, stuttering and twisting - there’s really a lot of movement. The low layers themselves, present a persistent, gritty rumble; whilst some of the higher layers sometimes become very trebly indeed, almost like vinyl surface noise. But the predominance given to the middle layers ensure that the wall is an inhospitable, crusty nine minutes.
The second track, “White As Jade”, is a much cleaner affair. It presents an eleven minute long wall, with a nice balance of low end drone and fizzle. These high layers are much clearer and more defined than in the first piece. The bass layers eddy and swirl; sometimes swelling up, other times just shadowing the track - again, its a cleaner sound than in the first track: it feels harder. The combination of these elements makes “White As Jade” so much more expansive than “The Big Black Ones”; its a wall that envelopes and smothers. It isn’t as active essentially, though there are eruptions of crunchy treble; and indeed, at several points sounds seem to try to push in from the void, almost resembling ghostly speech. But the effect of these very definite stabs, is just to make the monolithic low and high elements even more static. So whilst the overall effect is somewhat less aggressive and turbulent than the initial track, “White As Jade” feels more substantial and encompassing.
These two tracks must have made a great cassette. Both sides compliment one another well; with direct comparison of each, further bringing out the individual qualities of each. Whilst the “The Big Black Ones” is good, the “White As Jade” side is my preferred track: its a truly spacious wall that grows out of the speakers.