G'mork — Self Titled
For those unfamiliar with the film, it tells of troubled young boy who lives a dreary life being tormented by school bullies. One day he visits a book shop where the old proprietor reveals an ancient story-book to him, which he is warned can be dangerous. Shortly after, he "borrows" the book and begins to read it in the school attic where he is drawn into the mythical land of Fantasia, which desperately needs a hero to save it from destruction. G’mork is the villain of the story, & he’s a massive talking werewolf like creature.
This self titled two track CDR release is the projects debut release, and it appeared in a fairly limited edition of 15 copies back in June 2013. The release comes in a clear DVD case, and featured a single sided four colour cover- on the front cover there's a close-up picture of G’mork, and on it's back cover are two colour stills from the movie, another G’mork picture, track listing & a thanks list.
The release takes in two tracks in all, and each comes in just over the twenty minute mark. First up we have “Enter Fantasia”, and this track opens with a minute or so sample of the films glittering 'n' bopping synth pop theme song. By around the minute & a half mark the sample has slowly but surely got engulfed by a persistent & taut mass of crunching & juddering low end noise- the ‘wall’ on offer here is mid-paced, through quite meaty & lumbering in it’s attack. As the ‘wall’ progresses I’m sure I can make out a trail of distant & fixed hiss making it’s way through the fairly firm & thick wall attack. Around the 5th minute there seems a very slight shift in the textural make-up of the track-it's a mixture of speeding up of the ‘wall’, and more rabid & violently piling up of crunching tone. At around the 6.30 mark I can detect a slight slower line of muddy sounding tumble ‘n’ judder that is added to the ‘wall’, and this is most effective at enclosing you further in the ‘walls’ structure. As the track nears the 9th minute even more subtle yet effective layers of both rumbling, churning and thick bubbling texturing have been added to the thick sonic stew, and by around the 12th minute there’s a great meaty & long purring engine like sustained added to the ‘wall’- again it's nothing too overt or structure changing, but it just keeps the thick-ness building & building. Also as the track progresses there’s a nice counterbalance between tones seemingly speeding up, and slowing down which creates a most satisfyingly enclosing & entrancing state.
And secondly we have “On The Nature Of The Nothing”, which nicely leads directly in from the dense attack of the first track. To start with we get a neat sample of the G’mork talking to the young hero- this lasts around forty seconds or so, before the ‘wall’ effectively rises above the sample. This time the ‘walls’ a mix of taut & stretched jittering ‘n’ juddering noise, that’s underfed by a thinner skin of tense pummelling ‘n’ battering noise. All this creates a effective ‘wall’ that seems to pulling you two different ways, yet it remains fairly set & fixed in it’s structural makings. By around the 8th minute a layer of more rapid ‘n’ ripping judder has been added to the walled mass, and this nicely amps up both the intensity & brutality of the ‘wall’. Once again as the track progresses there seems to be a nice counterbalance between one tone speeding up & another slowing down- though that said I don’t think there is same level of layer adding on going on here, compared with the first track. The tracks ends with another sample from movie, and once again it another great moody & atmospheric dialogue exchange between G’mork & the young hero.
I found both ‘walls’ here consistent & reward though-out, and each had a fitting feeling of both animalistic darkness & churning malevolent villainy. I’m not sure if this just a one off project from Mr Harmon, but I hope not as it would be neat to hear what else he can do with the whole G’mork concept….mark wise for some reason I’m a little tied on what to give this release, but I think it should have 3 & ½ kudos out of five , but as our system wont allow half marks I’ve given it a three.