L’Aldilà — You Ungodly Warlock

You Ungodly Warlock is the second release from L’Aldilà- the new(ish) walled noise project from respected US Noise maker Sean E. Ramirez-Matzus( theNIGHTproduct, Thewhitehorse, Thin Mountain, [Untitled], Black Leather Jesus). It comes in the form of C60 on Stockholm’s  Ominous Recordings- with the same two around fifteen-minute tracks playing on the first & second sides.

The project themes itself around Lucio Fulci's 1981’s film  The Beyond, which blends unsettling, at times creepy nonsensical American southern gothic horror with brutal & zombie-bound gore. The black shelled cassette features a label on one side- taking in the greyly nihilistic and body-lined desert from the end of the film. With the sleeve featuring two stills of the blond-haired & blind female character from the film.  And copies are still available here

So first up we have “Seven Gateways”. This is built around a very thick and rough judder- to begin with, Matzus drifts the occasionally lose mid-ranged forks/ drags over the central element. But as the track moves on you start to make out more sublayer shift/ detail- be it a more muffled bay ‘n’ suck, cluttering static detail, or billowing sweeps-  at points these elements threatened to fully break to the surface, and knock the central texture out but they never do. The whole ‘wall’ has such a dense ‘n’ grimly scuzzy feel to it- which very nicely fits the projects/ releases themes.

The second track is “Attack, Dicke!”. Here we find mid-ranged judder, which is underfed by a meaty rattle-bound low end. To begin with, around the central tone, you can make out distant junk like forks & batters. But as things progress I’m making out a rolling billow, cascading/ lightly hacking static grain detail, and the occasional moody fan belt-like tonally drag. Instead of threatening to break the central tone- these additions seem to slow & drag out the whole thing in a rewarding manner- which feels heady in both its battering crudity and subtle atmospherics.

I’m normally not a fan of the same tracks on both side tape releases, as I think well what’s the point in hearing the same thing you’ve just heard again?. But due to the murky & muffled weighty attack of these two tracks, it really does work well in this format.

In finishing You Ungodly Warlock is a nice opening release from L’Aldilà- with both tracks managing to capture the brutal, yet dark/ lightly surreal feel of the film. I do hope we;ll get another release from this project- as I’m a sucker for horror filmed themed wall craft, and Matzus really manages to create a feeling of rough ‘n’ raw roughshod darkness here.