Draak — II
“Melkmeisje 1” is a merciless barrage of Harsh Noise Wall; no real finesse or finery to speak of, just a surging, dark wall. The left channel is dominated by a bassy, fast-moving scourge; which thunders along in a straight line without pausing for a second. The right channel is home to a much slighter texture: a fizzy, “digital” sounding wall; who’s rather fragile, trebly crackling is somewhat dwarfed by its stereo partner. Its a very static piece, though things do noticeably ramp up in intensity just after halfway through. There’s no really detailed textural crackling to be found, in fact the bass-led wall of the left channel is rather “smooth” sounding. The overall tone is very bass and treble orientated, with a low-end drone lurking throughout, menacingly.
Flipping the tape over, “Melkmeisje 2” has a different tone altogether. Its initially dominated by a stuttering, drill-like sound to the left; whilst to the right, strange ghostly echoes of treble wash and flick outwards. These reverberations become less shrill over time, but continue to pulse away in the mass of sound. The twitchy movement of these elements is found in the lower frequencies too, which twist and turn, solidly. The combination of the stuttering shrieking, and this encroaching, tumbling bass flail, makes for quite a monolithic wall.
Whilst the first side of “II” is merely ok, the second side really is a good piece of wall-making. It makes up for the lack of any real textural crackling, by virtue of its scuffing, tonal quality. As I said about “Melkmeisje 1”, there’s no real finesse to be found on “II”; but the sheer energy and movement, certainly on “Melkmeisje 2”, is enough to make it an accomplished work of abrasion.