Painflux — Anew
Anew is a struggling-yet-tightly entrapping example of the wall noise form from this Bangkok based project. The release appears as a digital download on the Polish noise label Gates of Hypnos.
The blue, hazed yellow and white text artwork features a series of figures on its four sides, with the release coming with a quote from Roman philosopher Seneca ‘Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end’- so this gives you an idea of the themes/ concept behind the release.
Featured here is a single self-titled thirty-one-minute track. The ‘wall’ is built around a blend of constantly churning 'n' bubbling low-end, fixed pelting 'n' spiteful static grain, and smaller locked industrial-like rattle bound texturing. The whole thing has a very real feeling of relentless struggling, and due to the fairly aquatic feel of the low end, one conjures up images of something been held underwater and fighting to get air. Around this, we of course have the more coldly pelting static tones, and rattle industrial-like textures, which work as an interesting and appealing counterbalance to the low-end. As a result, we find here a ‘wall’ that features fairly distinct/ original textures- which are nicely layered and blended together to create an entrancing whole. The just over thirty-minute runtime is perfect, and one never feels it overstays its welcome.
Though I know/ are aware of a few Thailand based wall projects I wasn’t aware of Painflux- and I must say I’m rather impressed by what we have here. After having a quick look through the bands bandcamp project, it seems it started around 2012- with around thirty releases to their name, from what I heard here the project has dabbled in both harsh noise, sustained electro drone, and other noise sub-genres- so possible that’s why they hadn’t been on my radar.
It’s always nice to discover new wall work, and I must say Anew stands as one of the more memorable and effectively textured ‘walls’ I’ve heard in a few months. So, as a result, I’ll certainly be digging deeper in the projects back catalogue to see if they have any other ‘wall; work- if you fancy downloading this track head to just here.