En Nihil — Crimes
The presentation is excellent, in pure Phage Tapes style. The quality of the print , the design, the overall polish and even just the paper used on this tape just screams "listen to me!" and makes the "brand" immediately recognizable. Lots of work goes into Phage Tapes' releases and I hope that this label will last long and eventually achieve the cult status it deserves in the years to follow.
What we have here is pure, extremely well composed and recorded noise. At first a subtle, crunchy wall of distortion reigns supreme, then various sound elements slowly blossom around it creating a solid and interesting mass of sound. The carpet of wallish distortion is still constant, and it works perfectly as a collagen for the subtle variations and additions. Several changes in intensity and tone of distortion, the noisy loops and the mangled synth enrich the track, also giving the listener the opportunity to discover new details at every new play. As often with harsh noise, I found this track soothing and relaxing.
The passage to the second part is blurry and evanescent, yet the timbre of sounds changes completely in the matter of seconds. "Part II" is very reminiscent of old school power electronics, with synth drones becoming totally predominant and redundant high pitch feedback synth loops constantly drilling holes in the listener's skull. The harsh noise crunch-matter slowly creeps away to leave room to a claustrophobic, hypnotic and menacing feast of loops and drones.
My verdict couldn't be more positive: I loved this release from start to finish. Both sides of the tape offer the same tracks and I know this could put off some noise aficionados, but the quality of this material is so good that I'm sure nobody would regret getting this tape. Highly recommended!