Dosis Letalis/Ropes — The Infernal Depths
The release brings together recent though prolific Serbian walled-noise project Dosis Letalis. And Ropes, an Italian project, whose sound has seemingly moved from dense ambience-to-tortured electronics. As the release title suggestions the theme here is seemingly purgatory/ hell/ & the firey abyss after life. The single sided monochrome cover takes in old & murky prints of gowned figures standing before subterranean lakes full of bodies, and a huge demon.
The two tracks are simply entitled “The Infernal Depths I & 2”- with both projects collaborating together on both tracks. So first up on side A we have “I”- this is a thick, muffled yet extremely eerier blend of constantly tumbling yet blunt wall matter, & this circling yet hazed higher pitched ambient loop. The ‘wall’ elements have quite are lo-fi clattering/juddering vibe about them, and really are fairly undefined in their detail. And the ambient elements really blend & haze into the background, to create this slow sinister almost pulsing repetition to the proceedings.
So of course on side B we “II”, and this feels a little more rapid & defined, though still relatively murky in it’s feel. We get a lose ‘n’ low juddering & jittering wall at the centre of the track, and added to this in a thinner skittering wall element, with a shift sweeps of hovering & slightly higher toned drone currents on top.
Oddly I felt rather split by this tape, as I really liked the dense yet dull glowing moodiness of the first side track. But felt slightly underwhelmed by the second side, as it just seemed a little predictable, and lacked the compelling eerier blunt-ness of the first track. I can certainly hear what the pair where attempting to creating in the sonic story arch with the two tracks- with “I” been the murky descent & “II” been the churning & seared arrival in hell it’s self- I just felt the second track didn’t feel as strong. So The Infernal Depths is certainly a interesting idea, & I like the concept of blending wall with ambient industrial elements, I just felt the second track let the whole thing down a little bit. I wanted to give this two & a half, but as we only do whole point I’ve gone for two instead.