Dosis Letalis & Phyllomedusa — Fluidity In Despair

From March last year Fluidity In Despair is a pro-pressed CDR wall noise split, with a toad/ frog theme. The release brings together two tracks a piece from respected & prolific Serbian project Dosis Letalis, and Maryland US based Phyllomedusa.

The black-on-black CDR comes in a full colour digipak- this features on it’s front a monstrous looking toad, & toad spawn picture. Then on the inside we get a in shadow picture of a set of scales- with human baby on one side, and a retile on the other- with a colour picture backing of cracking reptile eggs. There’s also a double sided colour inlay- this features more pictures of the front cover toad underwater- we also get track info in overlaid white text. The release had an edition of 50 copies, and appeared on Hypyractyv Larynx Frogquencies- which is the label of the mind behind Phyllomedusa….and I’m guess you should still be able to pick it up.

Each of the four tracks here slide in at around the ten minute mark- so you get spot on forty minute worth of material on offer. And up we get the two Dosis Letalis tracks-  the first of these is entitled “I/I”- and this a nicely tight & taut example of wall matter, for the first three quarter of the track we get a  rewarding mixture of rabid rolling roast, and batting back & forth rip bound juddering. Later on things skilful shift to a mixture of descending roast, and hack/ pelting static blend. The whole ‘wall’ is captured/ mastered in a wonderful punchy, clarity & urgency- which really nicely enhances the layers on display, the moments one or other layer pares back/ shift slightly, and keeps the whole thing very appealing & damn brutal.
The next track is “I/II”- this begins as a blend rapidly droning, almost pulse based under layer- which has around it a selection of thick hack ‘n’ sputter tones- I really dig the insistent tunnelling feel of this track. By around the two & a half minute mark the wholly things has shifted to a more nervy & urgent mix of buffeting/ battering roast, & bothersome hacking. We get one shift- this appears in the last quarter, where we get a great blend of seared bass grind & battering/ lashing texturing.  As we’ve come to expect from Dosis Letalis- these are two great examples of creative wall matter.

The second two tracks of course come from Phyllomedusa- this project has seemingly been active since 2007, releasing around seven pages of releases- and as should be fairly obvious now it's rather obsessed with all things fog & toad. The first track from them is “II/I”- here get a very seared & hazed wall that finds a sustained & smarting hiss & clutter, with sub layers of similar  toned lash & roasting wash. This is certainly a very immersive & overloading ‘wall’, and while I do appreciate  this, I did find it was a little one dimensional.
Next we have “II/II”- here we find a mixture of rapidly chopping hack, slightly spurting-to- rattling thinner noise- with sudden dwell in more crashing low end. I found this track a bit more effective compared to the first Phyllomedusa track, and with headphones it really nicely crushing listening. I guess you could say that the project has a fairly descriptive sound indenity- through I can’t say either of these 'wall' grab me as much as the Dosis Letalis tracks.

In conculsion this is certainly a curious  looking wall noise split, and it great to always hear new Dosis Letalis. I’ll certainly keep my mind open to future Phyllomedusa- and it’s always cool to see pro looking releases from with in the HNW scene