Layman/godNOISEgod — No Name

No Name is a split between two US-based wall-makers, we have Iowa-based Layman and Kansas City-based godNOISEgod. The first offers up two fifteen-minute tracks, and the second a single just shy of thirty-minute wall.

This is a self-released digital affair- on its cover we get classic shadow still from 1922’s nosferatu- though I don’t really understand how this relates to both half of the split, as the Laymen tracks are based around field recordings of a storm and it’s aftermath, while the godNOISEgod is entitled "Carpet Casket"- which is a little confusion!?. Anyway, the release can be found here

So first up we have the two Layman tracks- and first of these is “Parkersburg, Iowa (F5)”- and this we find out from the linear notes is created by sounds sourced during the Parkersburg hurricane, which took place between the 22nd & 31st of May 2008. The track comes in at 15.41 mark, and is built around tightly baying bass billow, ripping and rattling static subtones. The whole thing batters along at a rewarding enough flow with some nice shifts between ranging ‘n’ roast denseness, and rattle dips and builds, though it doesn’t sound as if much has been done with the original field records- just fed through pedals and maybe some subtle adjustments.
Next, we have “The Train” which is created using sounds sourced from news testimonies of survivors of the Parkersburg tornado- this comes in at 14.08, and of the two tracks I prefer this one. We have a more persistent mixture of tight bass buffets and taut static jitters- with the occasional grainy glitches ‘n’ rips.

Lastly, we of course have the godNOISEgod. Track- it’s entitled “Carpet Casket”, which runs at 29.37. Here we kick off in a rolling maelstrom of rapidly spiralling bay, which is weaved by rattling ‘n’ cluttering sub-tones. The whole thing is totally overwhelming and engulfing in its attack and unfolding. And while the textures presented are rather common garden- the raging flow of the whole thing does carry you along, though I think maybe a trimming off of ten or so minutes….though we did another layer bay ‘n’ rip, though it’s not  really very different from what we already have- so we just battering thick intensity, instead of  layer dynamics,  

In finish this is a good enough split- the use of field recordings on the first two tracks is interesting, though it would have been nice if maybe more had been done with them. And the third track battering baying sounds maelstrom, that at points feels like it could rip off limbs with its raging power.