Pink Wool / Hana Haruna — The Mad And Macabre

The Mad And Macabre is a Halloween-themed wall noise split bringing together two US-based projects. Oregon’s Pink Wool serves up a slicing & steady galloping wall. Whereas Portland’s Hana Haruna presents a more detailed/ unsettling example of the genre, with an uneasy ambient underbelly.

This is a digital-only release on Portland’s Basement Corner Emissions. For cover art, we get a monochrome illustration of a cat putting on a devil's mask- so well fitting the release's Halloween vibe/ influence. Both parties' walls hit dead on the thirty-minute mark.

So first up we have the wonderfully entitled “Brown-Leafed Vertigo”, which is from Pink Wool. The track is made up of a steady rolling gallop, which is topped with these slowly slice ice/ snow like textures. The rolling gallop is uneven yet fairly set, whereas the slicing tones seem to vary slightly. Together, the elements create both a moody/ yet oddly invigorating ‘wall’. And, if you shut your eyes, you can almost imagine floating through a steadily searing storm of leaves.

Next, we of course have Hana Haruna’s track, which is entitled “Trick or Trauma”. Here we have a detailed/ perfectly layered, balanced ‘wall’, which blends ill-defined nudges 'n' snaps, eerie glitching static grain flow & distant on/ off billowing- all set over a base of steadily ebbing ambient harmonics & subtle industrial knock. This is yet another skilfully created bit of wall craft from this project- with a wonderful sense of eerie unease.

The Mad And Macabre is an excellent split- both ‘walls’ managed to capture the Halloween vibe well and are sonically creative/ rewarding in their own right.