Monuments Are No Good To The Dead — Earths Hum Vol.I
“Earths Hum Vol.I” is the first in a series of five ep length HNW releases, and on offer here is a thirty one minute track, which is apparently built around manipulated, deconstructed, or destroyed field recordings that are filtered through walls of distortion and modulation.
The plain CDR comes in a slim DVD case, which features murky black & grey images of what looks like cathedral or church floor plans, along with a grim looking & occult like coat of arms on a star map like background. Also with the case is a single piece of cream art card with black text on, & this details “The Hum”- a mysterious & untraceable sound that is heard in certain locations around the world.
The track on offer here is an intense, battering & crude slice of layer shifting walled noise that rages ‘n’ batters around you in a very overwhelming & engulfing manner. The ‘walls’ built around a rapid & barbaric mixture of juddering, jittering, violently purring, buzzing & cluttering noise that’s weave into a dense noise mass. The tracks brutality oscillates & sears between: low-end buzzing-ness, cluttering mid-ranged, and sputtering & jittering lows ‘n’ mids. The whole thing has a very raging almost junk metal tipped vibe to it.
There is no doubt that “Earths Hum Vol.I” is a truly intense & overloading affair which leaves the listener with zero re-spit or breathing space, but at times the layers are a bit too active meaning in places this becomes almost sludge ‘n’ muffled harsh noise, instead of HNW. I certainly liked the truly engulfing feel of this release & I also enjoyed the often rough ‘n’ crude feel of many of the textures, but for me there’s a just bit too much shift here to make this a wholly consistent & rewarding HNW release.