Knives — Violent Distillation
This eight-track CD takes in the whole of the project's discography- with a runtime of just thirty-five minutes, but boy this is one hell a searing & jarring ride, as the two types of noise are fed together to create a really damn intense, and fairly distinctive sound. The Knives project ran less than a year, starting & finishing in 2005- the project brought together two respected figures in the California noise scene- Phil Blankenship (The Cherry Point & respected noise label Troniks) and Jonathan Borges (Pedestrian Deposit / Monorail Trespassing)- in all the project put out a single-sided 7” and three C10 tapes.
The digipak packaging here is simple yet effective as on the front get just white text on a glossy black cover, and on the back a picture of the projects set-up/ track listing. On the inside panel, we get a write-up about the project from Canadian Noise legend Sam McKinlay( The Rita), which is an interesting read. The release had a pressing of 200 copies, and as of this review the label still has copies
As you’d hope with this type of collection the CD runs chronologically- so we can hear how the sound progressed. So we kick off with “Switchblade Princess”- this originally appeared back March of 2005 on Troniks as a seven inch with the same track on each side- the just shy of four-minute track opens with an even rolling static grain- but this only last around ten second as fairly soon over the static grain we get this shredding & baying tone dwells that move from warbling washes, onto skittering & roasting grain chop-ness, and sweep sears. From time-to-time, we get micro-breaks for more wallish snippets- but these don’t last. By track four & five we have got the two untitled tracks of C10 Empty Desire- the first track blends rapidly chugging & cluttering static grain with whistling & hacking texturing, while the second is a tight & manic blend of choppy-yet-tense swirl 'n' bay with careening grain feast. The final track of the release is three minutes & nineteen of “Live At The Smell, 2/12/2005” here we find a winding blend worming chug & fold, with sudden-yet fleeting swings of mid-to-higher pitched noise, and then roaring applause at the end of the set.
If you enjoy where textured/semi-wall moments meet more baying & roasting noise matter- than I’d say Violent Distillation we’ll be for you. To sample tracks, and buy direct head here