Government Alpha & Barrikad — Daydreaming
The 3 inch CDR comes in a nice professional looking pro four-colour artwork printed box with the grim picture of a dead & beaten(or close to death) women’s face & neck on the outside. The track inside is entitled ‘Beyound R.E.M’ and takes in twenty minutes of harsh noise bombardment- it all starts off with thick clunking sheets of semi- rhythmic noise textures that are under-fed by this murky sort of grim melodic & slightly soured droning which keeps drilling to the surface; in a fairly high pitched synthetic horn or string swirl.
As the tracks goes on the noise elements switch effectively & often dramatically between slower, more feed- back buzzing noise & more crushing/ bombastic tonality shifting noise; with the underlining drone texture also nicely shifting from more searing & aggressive down to slower & grimmer ebbs or bobs of atmosphere. On the whole it’s a nice, eventful track though at times the drone & harmonic element do seem a little too simplistic played & executed against the very professionally shifted & textured noise elements.
This is my first taste Barrikad’s work (through of course I’m very familiar with Government Alpha's sound) & while this track is certainly effective & enjoyable through-out ; I suspect the more rudimentary & simplistic twists are down to Barrikad. So in finishing an entertaining & searing long form noise track that has some nice harmonic & atmospheric twists; it’s just a pity some of these twist are a little predictable & at times a wee bit ham-fisted.