Light Collapse — Spira Derespive

Muzikaal Kabaal presents Light Collapse’s Spira Derespive as part of their 3” Gnome Project series. Light Collapse is the moniker of Russian HN/HNW artist Vitaliy Maklakov, a project that has been receiving quite a bit of praise in HNW circles as of late, at least on some of the internet forums I frequent. Along with the fanfare, Muzikaal Kabaal has a pretty good track record in my books for producing quality micro editions, so that’s already two things going for this release. 

The artwork and packaging are quite simple, but really aesthetically pleasing to the release at hand. The 3” CD-r is housed in a gnome-sized plastic case with simple black and white artwork featuring a photo of a man wearing some serious audio headgear. Limited to 15 pieces, this release is likely already history.
 

A single 18 minute track makes up the content of this small disc. I must admit I’m a bit of a HNW fanatic, but unfortunately, I wasn’t all too pleased this release. The wall sounds like an amplified engine of some kind, but processed in a way that doesn’t release give the wall enough character. It’s very bass driven and active, but not in the way that makes for an engaging listening experience. It’s a lot of flat rumbling that at times achieves the crackle that I enjoy in a good wall, but not in a sustained way. It does become more enjoyable for me around the 8 minute mark, where he gets a really good and active bass rumble going with a crackling undercurrent, but it starts to go flat again a couple minutes later. At the ten minute mark are stretches of repetitive compressed fragments with a recurring crackle interspersed. Two-thirds in it and you start hearing sounds similar to someone holding the end of an instrument cable not plugged into anything. Not a sound I’m particularly fond of. As the track winds down it occasionally hits some crushing moments here and there. Unfortunately, the times this track hits the “sweet spot” is far and few between, making it terribly inconsistent throughout.
 

I had heard a lot of positive commentary about this Russian HN/HNW project, so I was quite disappointed with this offering. Unfortunately, while I quite enjoyed the aesthetic of the art and packaging the actual content didn’t do much for me. With the sheer volume of HNW releases most artist of the genre put out, you’re bound to have some duds in your catalog. I’ll chalk this up as one of those times and will give Light Collapse another try down the road.