Joli — Sitting, Waiting, Crying Out
The tape is part of the ‘Neon Wall’ series of cassettes, which is put out by USA noise label Lurker Bias. I’m reviewing a digital download of the release- so I can’t comment on either the tapes packaging, or quality.
Each track here is self titled, and the first sides 'wall' brings together a selection of tense ‘n’ taut static textures with a lower-to-mid tonal range. These starkly bleak yet extremely seared tones are set out into ripping and juddering repetitions, and these are running at slightly different speeds to each other. As the track progresses seemingly first one layer switch’s speed, then the next- but in reality I think this is maybe a trick of the mind and the whole thing is fairly fixed. The textures remain fairly set in their patter-nation; save for the last few minutes when this murky, muffled & deep grinding layer appears in the guts of the track. All in all this first track is an effectively entrancing slice of impenetrable wall bleak-ness.
Moving onto the second sides track. And this ‘wall’ offers up a tight ‘n’ suffocatingly taut selection of juddering ‘n’ jittering layers- these are set out into a churning & grinding ocean of grey static thickness. I guess the tonal range & textural setting follows on from the first side, but to my ears there seems a bit more movement with-in the noise layers; but this of course this could just once again be a trick of the mind. This is another thoroughly engulfing & densely stark ‘wall’, which nicely pulls you deeper & deeper into its churning maelstrom.
So in conclusion this release presents the listener with two hellishly dense & hope grinding slices of ‘wall-craft’. After only hearing a Joli track from a recent split wall release, it’s great to hear what how they fare on a stand alone release. And I must say I thoroughly enjoyed both tracks here, and look forward to hearing more of the projects densely stark take on ‘wall-craft’ in the near future.