Oblive/Last Rape — Untitled
The two tapes come in a long vinyl box which features basic black & white artwork of a creepy looking river/ stream and its surrounding woodland. And With some of the track titles like “Body Left Floating, Tied At The Ankle To The Lonely Tree”- this artwork makes one think that the photographed location could easily be the dumping ground for a used, slashed & abused body, and this really makes the cover that much more effective and disturbing.
Tape one is taken up by two side long tracks from the often active but always creative Missouri based HNW project Oblive(aka Jeff Landgraf whose also behind the more fixed & ghost themed project Mass Graves). Side A’s track is charmingly entitled “Vomit Swallower” and this track is built around dense chugging ‘n’ hacking crusty walled noise. The track brings my to mind a twitching(and possible vomiting) body that’s been slowly yet repeatedly stabbed multiple times by an blood lust aroused killer. As the tracks progress the 'wall' seems to get more down ‘n’ dirty in it’s hacking crusty vibe, yet the 'wall' remains fairly tight & lacks any great structural shifts. It’s a great track with Landgraf really creating a wonderfully sleazed & blood stench heavy slab of HNW. Side B’s track is entitled “Bestow These Blessings Of Hell Upon Us” and this starts out with a minute or two of sinister church organ playing, smashing bell like tones, and a satanic ritual sample that’s sounds like it’s from some sort of devil loving 70’s b-movie. After this we smash into the ‘wall’ which is a lot more rapid & battering than the first sides ‘wall’- the tracks built around a rolling ‘n’ juddering back drone which is knitted over by rapid stitching ’n’ jittering static tones. Again this tracks main structure stays fairly fixed in it’s feel with the odd shift in each of the main textures. With this track Landgraf creates a great urgent & surrounding devil loving vibe, and the ‘walls’ damn moorish & brutally enchanting too.
Tape two is taken up by brutally yet highly moody walled noise of Houston Texas based Last Rape. And this projects features Richard Ramirez -of Werewolf Jerusalem, Black Leather Jesus, Fouke & many other projects, and Sean E. Matzus-owner/ runner of the Unlimited Drift label, and in projects such as: A week of Kindness, The Whitehorse, Black Leather Jesus. Side A’s track is entitled “Body Left Floating, Tied At The Ankle To The Lonely Tree” and this track offers up a throbbing, musty & lo-fi mass of ‘wall-making’ that mixers together this great circling 'n’ chugging noise tone with this buried & looped raising ‘n’ eerier harmonic bent tonality. The pair bound these two elements together into a very involving ‘wall’ that has some nice subtle textural turns along it’s length, and the eerier harmonic elements seem to get more stuck & foreboding as the track goes on too. This ‘wall’ managers to be skin flamingly brutal & caustic, yet at the same time deeply creepy & unsettling- which is damn difficult sonic balancing act. Side B’s track is entitled “Water Will Wash All Traces Of Me From My Revenge”, and this track is another very nicely lo-fi slice of ‘wall-making”. The tracks built around this continual billowing & murky industrial tinged noise drone that’s weaved with smaller static textural detail. Though-out it’s runtime the tracks ‘wall’ stays constantly pressing and airless, and once again there is little texturally movement here save for some subtle atmospheric textures shifts. This ‘wall’ has a great obsessive & greyly grim feel to it, and one really can picture in theirs minds eye a battered, slashed & fish belly pale naked corpse bobbing & swaying in a lonely stretch of woodland surrounded stream.
So in conclusion this is a really great & highly conistent split release with both projects creating some great brutal yet atmospheric walled noise. Sadly this was only ltd to 23 copies, and these are no long gone…so lets hope someone sees fit to reissue this split at some point as each track here shows both projects at the height of their searing yet chillingly moody powers.( extra note: I've just heard back from the lable & they've found a few more copies of this...so head over to here to sse if you can snap a copy up before there all gone)