Midnight Heat — After Midnight
The project was in existence between 2009 & 2010, and it took it’s name from 1983 movie Midnight Heat, which featured roughie porn star Jamie Gillis in a tale of a hit man holed up in a rundown Times Square hotel – the film was apparently mix of grim thriller & hardcore sex. The box sets cover nicely fits the sleazed subject matter of the project, taking in low grade collages of cut & ripped-up Pornography. The set also takes in a small booklet of more old porn collages & a mini poster. The track listings for each tape each come on there own slip of paper taking more grimy porn collages, and old type writer font text gives the whole thing a perfect grimy & sleazy lo-fi look.
So moving onto the tapes themselves, and first up on side A of tape one we have the first three tracks of the release Hungarian Stocking fillers ( put out in 2009 on Turgid Animal), and one track from a 2010 split between Ataraxy & Animal Machine . The first three tracks are entitled “13 Jan 2009 one to three”, and the last track “Cleaning The Streets Of Filth”- all of the tracks are sequenced together into one long track. "Part one" starts out bringing together a rapid, interlocking & crude mix of rushing ‘n’ juddering low-end, which is underfed by a muffled & bleak billowing drone sustain, and possibly some very distant film samples( or maybe I’m just imaging this?!). At around the 4th minute I’m sure I can make out a muffled sort of banging or rattling with-in the mass of sound, but I not completely sure what it is & if it’s there, as every thing is so overloaded & crude. At the 10th minute we move into "Part two", and this is brings together a locked & taut sort of overloaded tonal hover over a deep rushing ‘n’ juddering based- this track really tights up the proceeds to crude breath-less intensity- as it goes on you get these effective wavering like rattling/juddering sub-tones sliding through the tracks mass. At the twenty minute we move into "Part three"- this time it’s a mix of slowed tumbling & thick low end, which is weaved by thinner & more rapid jittering. At the 28th minute mark we move into “Cleaning The Streets Of Filth, and this is quite a change from the proceeding tracks as it mixes together fixed faded & rushing noise haze, which is drifting with a lose mesh of flotsam & jetsam- taking in what sounds like stretched out screams, slowed mid-to-high pitched noise feed back swirls, and unsettling harmonic sweeps. All giving the track a hellish sort of smut bound vibe.
Moving over to side B of tape one, and we have the 4th part of Hungarian Stocking Fillers release, and this is entitled “13 Jan 2009 Four”. This is a more active affair than the other three tracks as you get a base of tumbling ‘n’ bashing low end, which is moved with mixers of seared higher pitched almost soured harmonic tones, sudden galloping clusters of static, and roaring to searing sweeps of noise. I guess you could just call this walled noise due to the fairly fixed base & repetitive nature of some of the other tones- but I’d say its more ‘wall-ish’ & dense harsh noise. Its ok & I guess as it keeps the sleazed/ crude feel of the other tracks, but for me it’s going a bit too none ‘wall’ like for my liking. It comes in with a running time of forty six minutes.
So next we move onto tape number two, and this first starts off with the track “Dorian Patch”-this originally appeared on a split tape from 2010 entitled Ecstatic Piss ( the tape also featured Vomir, Indch Libertine and Terminal Erection). This track is built around a dense mass of tumbling ‘n’ pouring crusty static, which is surrounded by thinner jittering ‘n’ pummelling sub tones. Both textures are focused towards a lower-to-mid range tonal setting- it’s one of my favourite moments here due to it’s moorish/ fixed yet churning feel. At the 10 minute mark we shift into the next track( which is once again sequenced with out a gap)- this track is entitled "For Jamie" (after Mr Gills I presume), and this presents of mass of similar ranged static that’s focused into a fixed rushing ‘n’ churning pattern- underneath this you just can make out a fixed rolling billow. This track comes in at the thirty minute mark, and it originally appeared on the HNW Alone ten tape compilation that appeared on Fusty Cunt back 2010. I like the crude & numbing roll of this track, though the texturally elements do seem a little too simple for their own good- meaning it doesn’t feel that appealing over it’s full runtime.
Flipping over to side two of tape two, and we just have one track, and this comes in the form of “Pissing Rebecca”- this track originally appeared on 2009 split tape which also featured Terminal Erection. This tracks is built around a rushing mesh of rapidly cascading static, which is under fed by a distant muffled & bleak droning/ juddering element. All the tones here sit in a fairly similar tonal range, and again it’s fairly simple in it’s make-up. The track comes in at the 47 minute mark, and I must say I rather enjoyed the numbing & starkly unchanging roll of this track- with the muffled droning element really pulling you in.
Moving onto tape three and on the first of this tape we have a track entitled “November”- this is a previously unreleased track from 2010. This thirty minute track opens with a very stark & muffled billowing wind type matt of thicken noise- over the top of this are subtle traces of rushing, pop & crackling noise detail, and from time to time I can make out locked down machinery like buzzing in the foreground. As the track goes on I can make out from time to time sudden yet subtle rises & falls in the tonal pitchers- but it never moves too far from it’s originaly tonal setting. Again it’s another very brutal & nasty bit crude/sleazed wall-making, but this time there is quite a battering winter storm meets buried machinery feel to the proceedings.
Over on the second side of tape three we have the track "Purity Cock Ring"- this track originally appeared on the HNW Alone ten tape compilation that appeared on Fusty Cunt back 2010. This thirty minute is track built around a mixture of churning ‘n’ swirling machine like back drone, which is covered by an constantly pouring ‘n’ rumbling mid-range static tone, and a few juddering sub-tones. To me this track brings to mind the sound of a continual churning cerement mixer, and once again the whole thing has a nicely sleazed & crude feel about it fitting perfectly it’s title.
Tape four takes in another two tracks, and these untitled tracks originally appeared on 2010’s XXX Zado- which was a c90 & 2 dvdr release( the dvdr featured two hardcore rougies from the 70’s & 80’s). The first sides track is a simplistic mix of rolling low-to-mid range noise matter, which has some muffled buffeting sub-tones running through it. This track really takes the projects crude & nasty take on walled noise to its most extreme- and I’m afraid to say it just felt a little too simple for it’s own good, meaning my attention wandered fairly quickly & the 45 minute runtime just really seemed to drag. Sure it’s great to be intense & brutal, but there has be something rewarding, memorable, or creative about a ‘wall’ to pull you in, & sadly this track had none of those qualities.
So the last side of tape is taken up by the second untitled track from the XXX Zado release , and to my ears it just sounds like a extremely muffled, deteriorated & slowed down version of the flip sides track. I guess this side a little more appealing than the first sides track, as it keeps sounding like it’s going to fully fade out…but it just keeps crawling on & on. Though that said just like the first side of tape four it’s get tiresome to the extreme after 45 minutes. So all told this last tape is the least rewarding of the set, and you get the feeling by this point Proctor had lost interest in both the project & HNW…so I guess it’s best it finished here.
All in all it’s always nice to see new multi tape or CDR box sets appearing on the wall scene- and if you enjoy crude (and mainly simple) walled noise with a perverse/ violent theme this is worth a look. Sure there is nothing too complex, creative, or really original about Midnight Heats take on HNW…but if your just after sleazed & searing walled noise you’ll find this rewarding. The set comes in an edition of 33 copies, and as of writing the label still has copies.