Flood — Challenger Deep
Since around 2010 Killick has been an influential & pivotal part of the euro/worldwide wall noise scene- he was one of the first artists to use bright more popular culture themes for his walls, most notoriously with his Love Katy project which paid tribute to US teen pop idol Katy Perry. Also between 2010 & 2012, he ran the hugely important wall-noise label Sweet Solitude- which helped give birth to both progressive wall noise & ANW. Lastly he also an extremely talented & skilful wall maker- who can seemingly build, layer, and shift his textured craft into many creative shapes & moods.
Killick started Flood in 2015, and as its name suggests the themes of the project are water & sea-based, taking in also creatures that live within the seas such as Sharks. So far the project has put out around six digital releases, and a couple of physical releases. So it’s not the most prolific of projects, by wall-noise standards, but it’s slowly but surely released a quality bound body of work
Challenger Deep was released in July of this year in a physical edition of 20 copies- so not surprisingly these have all sold out with the label. The dark blue shelled cassette comes in a single-sided colour sleeve, which takes in a picture of an undersea archway or cave. Though the tape is long gone you can still download the release from the labels bandcamp.
The release takes in two thirty minute tracks that are simply entitled Challenger Deep Parts 1 & 2. So first up we, of course, have "Part 1"- this begins with a slowly fading in a blend of rapid spiting 'n' spotting static, which is underfed by a blend of hissing & fleeting buzzing texturing. As the track progresses there’s a very snaking/ maze-like quality to the ‘wall’, as Killick expertly blends together the two elements in a perfect sonically balanced & highly appealing manner. By around the 4th minute, it feels like the spitting 'n' spotting elements have become more snapping staple like in their feel, and this is nicely underfed by the rapid mantra-like feel of the buzzing & hissing texturing. By the 7th minute we have a blend of vigorous slicings, jumping pops & hisses, and sways of thinner-to-pared back static sweeps - as Killick pusher the wall into a most manic, detailed, complex- yet totally controlled place. As we near the mid-way point there is this wonderful skipping & jumping static rip pattern occurring within the ‘walls’ weave, and this creates an almost darting & jerking nervy groove feel to the whole thing. The remained of the track sees Killick subtle & skilful shift though rapid peddling spoke like drifts, intense hacking descents, blends of manically choppy slicing & cluttering hiss-ness, and pelting-to-swaying billows. Simply put this first track is s a great example of rapid, yet completely controlled, and skilful conceived wall-matter
Moving next of course onto "Part 2"- this opens with a tense mixture of buzzing & purring droning pulse- this is added to by smaller metallic like snapping & jittering textures. The buzzing ‘n’ purring textures have an urgent electro feel to them, while the smaller elements nicely rain in ones focus. At the seventh minute, we get the rise of this crude & crackle bound feasting appearing- as the other elements start to pare-back- all to create a bleak & cold water like sensibility. Fairly soon the buzzing & purring elements start to reappear, but they are more subdued- creating this feeling of barren abandonment, as if you’ve come across some vast empty boat in the middle of the sea. By around the midway point, a more blunt & harsher lashing & hissing textured has appeared- and this blend really has quite an eerier persistent to it, which is edged by tension via the use of rapidly spitting- yet cascading noise. In the latter half we move from juddering static repetitions, wonky galloping spoke patterns, through to brooding buzzing drone-outs, and skipping thinned static lines. This sides track is just as great as the first sides track, with once again Killick perfectly blending clever texturally prowess with brilliant layer balance, and effective mood setting.
Challenger Deep is easily one of the wall-noise highlights of 2018- with Killick once again showing why he’s such a respected & revered figure within the scene. Let’s hope at some point down the line it gets another physical release, as a wall-noise release of this calibre really needs to be in more physical collection than just twenty.