Necrotik Fissue — Sleeping Above The Dry Grassland

Sleeping Above The Dry Grassland is a nearing three-hour sonic journey into brutal searing- yet unmoving & terminal suffocating walled noise, which has as its title suggests a fairly primal nature-based feel to it. The release appears on British label Void Singularity Recordings- as either a double CDR or digital download- the physical release appeared in an edition of fifteen copies, and as of this review the label still has copies.

The unlabelled CDR’s appear in a double jewel case- this features low fi PC printed single-sided artwork- on the front cover, fitting the title; we get a blurred photo of some long grass. And on the back simple white texts against black backdrop- so basic underground noise label presentation really.

Each CDR takes in a single track- and each really stretchers the CD’s limit with tracks that come in just shy of one hour & eighteen minutes long. This Hungarian artist is often known for his epic & dense wall’s- with some of his longer releases moving towards several days worth of ‘wall-craft’ – so this releases nearing three-hour runtime is fairly short compared with some of the projects work.

So on the first disc, we have “Sleeping Above The Dry Grassland (Part one)”, and from the outset, it’s full & rapidly rushing ‘wall’ which sees the bringing together of circular swarms of speedily buffeting wind textures, buried rumbling- at-times almost pummelling low-end. All of this is topping off with thinner-yet- compacted selection rattling & baying textures.  The whole ‘wall’ creates a feeling of complete alone-ness with nature- as if ones trying to meditate in a rickety wooden shed that sits above acres of desolate grassland, as a mostly rain-less storm batters & rage ’s away outside.  As you move through the tracks length, it feels at moments one texture will pare back slightly, as the other becomes stronger- but I think in reality this is a very much set piece of brutal-yet-moody wall matter.

Over onto the second disc & we, of course, have “Sleeping Above The Dry Grassland (Part two)”. This track notches up the dense bleak-ness factor; as we get a constantly intense mesh of the following textures- a muffled &  seared rush, buried & blunt almost aquatic rumbles & churnings, and some decidedly hiss bound sub-tones. The layers here seem a little more simplistic in their make-up, but that really helps amp of up the face roasting intensity of the whole. Where the first track felt like you where sheltering from the storm on the barren grasslands- this feels like you drudging through the grassland, and now there’s stinging rain in the wind & your feet are drenched with bone-chilling water.  Surprisingly for a fair simplistic wall, this track does manage to keep one focused through-out its lengthy runtime.

While Sleeping Above The Dry Grassland doesn’t stand as one of the more creative, or experimental releases from Necrotik Fissue- it’s certainly one of the more stark, and unrelenting- so if you're in the mood for terminal bleak &  seared wall matter, then I think this will fit the bill.