Hoggle — Shifting Walls Reveal The Four Guards
The release comes in the form of a CDR that features three tracks that fall around the ten minute mark. The CDR comes in the Muzikaal Kabaal label house style mini DVD case, and this features a colour front picture still from The Labyrinth movie, which takes in two of the four guards from the albums title.
Up first we have “It’s not Fair”, which comes in at just under the ten minute mark. After a brief sample from the movie of the four guards taunting the films heroine we drop into the ‘wall’, which is a rapid mixture of billowing ‘n’ juddering low-to-mid end noise. The ‘walls’ made up of locked raging billowing, and a muffled slightly clattering ‘n’ crackling static judder- these elements remain pretty much fixed for the full length of the track. The only really major deviation happens in the tracks last minute or so when the ‘wall’ shifts more into a rapid pelting & battering down pour of noise tones.
Next we have “Certain Death”, which is the shortest of the tracks at the 9.27 mark. Once again this starts with a sample from the movie with a rather comic interplay between the films heroine & the four guards’. This ‘wall’ mixers together a muffled back drone billowing, with a ragging cold winter rain noise storm like battering. Once again the track stays fairly fixed & unforgiving in its feel, & in it’s last minute or so a more raging rain storm feel seems to start.
Lastly we have “Use Your Wits and Fail”, and this is the longest track here at just under the eleven minute mark. As with the other two tracks this opens with another brief movie sample, then pretty soon we’re into the noise meat of the track. And this ‘wall’s built around a mixture of billowing low/mid end noise, which has this great sort of thin skipping/ slightly clattering static texture on top of it. This is my favourite moment here as the mix of the two tones is most effective & addictive. The track ends with one last sample from the movie of the heroine falling down a trap door
I really felt that the shorter lengths of all three tracks here helped this release feel a lot more approachable & rewarding; as in the past this project has sometimes stretched out rather mediocre ‘walls’ far too long. Sure none of these three ‘walls’ are mould breaking or particularly inventive, but there are often entrancing & brutally enjoyable.