Koobaatoo Asparagus — Texas and the Lost Girls

Texas and the Lost Girls is a two-track walled noise release with a social conscience- focusing on sex trafficking in the Houston area, where 1000’s women have been forced into prostitution. Each track hits spot on the twenty-one-minute mark, and each offers up a nicely taut and tense slice of wall-craft. Koobaatoo Asparagus- aka California noise maker Michael Scott- has been active Since around 2009, building up an impressive back catalogue of releases of three hundred and thirty plus release.

This release comes in the form of a self-released digital download available from the projects Bandcamp here  - with cover artwork featuring a picture of a group of women covering their faces, and I presume these are a few of the 1000’s forced in the sex trade in the Lone Star state.

Both tracks here are self-title- the first ‘wall’ is built around a taut bass bound flaming like tone, this is topped/ blended with a constantly snapping/ flicking tone. Together these create a feel akin to the close-up sound of heroin been heated and bumbling, with the backdrop of continuous worn-down lighter flicking, which I guess It’s a most fitting connection, as quite often sex workers are hooked on junk- having to do their trade both to feed the monkey and their pimps. Scott nicely balances/blends the two elements together well, to create a nicely enchasing-yet- brutally appealing mid-range example of walled noise.

Moving onto the second self-titled track, and here we rather shift into the starker side of things. With the ‘wall’ been based around a set murky rumble ‘n’ drone, which is topped with a constantly snap wood-like desert. Together these elements create a decidedly barren, yet organic vibe- with this time one getting images of slow/ haphazard descents down wood ‘n’ rope ladder to a tarry black and bleakly droning abyss. Again, another most entrancing 'wall'.

It’s always nice to see wall-makers step away from the usual nihilistic or horror fed theme- so the themes rather original, added to this we get two appealing examples of the ‘wall’-craft. So another winner from Mr Scott and his Koobaatoo Asparagus project.