Hostage Pageant — Abuse Generator
The tape surprisingly comes with Braille etching instead of regular body print or sticker, which is a weird choice and a welcome novelty, as I don't think I’ve ever seen before.
The sounds with-in perfectly reflect the image on the cover: crunchy and mean noise with abrupt stop-and goes and waves of annoying feedback. Classic crackle-and-hiss variation, some vocals drowned in distortion and muddy pits of low-pitch filth complete the canvas of a very solid bulk of noise.
In general, the pace and the feeling of the whole tape is menacing, somehow restrained and just plain uneasy, probably making it cross the power electronics border by intent and merit.
The compositions are fairly simple and direct, and because of this they're all very effective. All the sounds click the right buttons and I didn't find anything out of place: it's just good noise, the kind that makes my head bob in approval.
Hostage Pageant keeps things crude and minimal, but there's enough variation along the tracks with-in “Abuse Generator” to keep things interesting. Quite a wide range of the incredible spectrum of possibilities offered by a contact microphone, some junk and a bunch of guitar pedals are explored here with confidence and skill.
I wasn't familiar with this project before but I will be looking forward to any new output. In conclusion: well done!