Knurl — Periphoric Strain

Knurl should little or no introduction to noise fans, as Alan Bloor- the mind behind the project has been releasing raw, merciless, brutal noise creations for almost 25 years now!. With each new release, I feel he has successfully increased the intensity of his art, not only sound-wise but also conceptually.

His newest recording  Periphoric Strain appeared on No Rent label, and has been released as a cassette & a digital download- sadly the tape was a  limited edition and is already out of print.
 
The cassette comes in a clear shell with a b/w inlay- this shows us a photo of a screw or a thread to reflect the quite impressively tension of the release!. From listening to the album I'm not sure if the release was recorded with some of Knurl's self-constructed noise machines or metallic constructions. This release features real, amplified sound objects, but never silly over used distorted effects. I've never seen Alan performing live but it would be very interesting to see how he used his contact microphones to create these recordings.The album is about 40 minutes long with two pieces on each side.
 
The first track "Metasphere" begins with metallic sound-textures, and evolves slowly-but-surely with an increasingly stinging noise  appearing out of the background. There are also rises with sudden eruptions of hard,  amplified metallic objects and Knurl's typical growling static. In the end, the static sounds intensifies  themselves and  quieter the other sound objects.  The piece has a sense of a constant moving feedback structure, but with a layer of brittle metallic sounds peering through it- this element really serves the track as a effectively unifying component  in some passages.
 
The second piece on the A-side "Interphysis" surprises with a mix between raw 'n' direct noise , and very gloomy, piercing sound sculptures. With this recording, everyone can hear Knurl's passion to manipulate metallic objects iuncompromisingly without overdubs or postproduction. Simply because he does it perfectly! 
 
After the hard and heavy A-side, the B-side follows with two more crackers: "Physiometropia" and "Syndrome".  On these pieces, the static is more central. The different noise sources are attacking and interrupting each other continuously and allowing the feedback drones to act again as a foundation in its intensity. There are moments on these tracks where they are not only wild dynamic impulses of Knurl's typical destructively focused anti-music, but also some interesting variations of subtle, seemingly cacophonic elements. Although Periphoric Strain does not really surprise us with too many variations, there is a pleasant feeling totality due to the slowly building-up feedback drones. 
 
Periphoric Strain gives us a very interesting yet beautifully exhausting work. After all the releases I’ve heard from Knurl, this is for surly one of my favorite works! In all its brutal beauty- it’s an experimental harsh noise gem by one of the most consistent artists of the Harsh Noise genre.