Koobaatoo Asparagus — Women On Death Row

Women On Death Row presents us with two sixteen minutes examples of appealing walled noise from this San Diego based project. The two-track digital release appeared mid-September 2021,  it’s a self-released affair, and can be played/ downloaded here.

The release is seemingly themed on just a single woman on death row, Debra Denise Brown who is the sole woman on Indiana’s death row for the murder of a seven-year-old girl in 1984. The cover artwork is just an in prison picture of Ms Brown, who seems to be smirking.

Both tracks here are self-titled and run at spot on the sixteen-minute mark. The first track brings together a blend of set purring ‘n’ billow machine droning, with rapidly rattling static texturing, and some subtle hacking bond sound detail. The whole ‘wall’ is an even mix of crude urgency and bone-rattling intensity and  I could have easily listened to it for twice of its length.

The other track finds a constantly worming bass tone, which is mixed with a selection of smaller hacking ‘n’ snapping tones- these have a slightly aquatic feel to their flow, which is rather neat. Together these elements create a ‘wall’ that is both nicely tense, and subtle detailed- and once more I could have played this for twice its runtime.

All told I rather enjoyed  Women On Death Row- with both ‘walls’ offered up a nice place between the tense, and rewarding texture bracket.  And it would be nice if the project could expand on the women on death row theme- as it’s rather neat, and I’m always a sucker for true crime-themed noise.