Pit Of Despair/Woods Mattress — Split

Here’s a terminally raw, grimly worn, at points searing ‘n’ drilling wall noise split. It brings together Frances Pit Of Despair and Illinois Woods Mattress- each party offers up around half an hour wall. The first is fairly fixed, while the second is mostly fixed, though later on, we do get some rewarding deviation.

The release appears on Poland’s Gates Of Hypnos- a long-term releaser/supporter of the wall noise scene. It’s a digital-only affair. For the cover artwork, we have a monochrome collage bringing together crudely cut-up textures/ shapes. The release can be found here. 

Pit Of Despair has been active since early this year- putting out eight or so releases thus far- this is my first taste of the project's work, and I must say I like what I hear- as the track “A One Legged Pigeon” is an effective slice of dense ‘n’ bleak walling. It features this muffled & faint mumbling voice-like texture, which is topped by a loose and crude juddering/ knocking element, with the whole thing edged by these constantly tumbling low-end crusty rolls.  The whole ‘wall’ has such an oppressive and sludgy feel, which seems akin to stumbling around a half-lit room, constantly bumping into crumbling and sewage-seeping walls. At times it feels like the whole thing is shifting in speed- but I think this is purely a sonic illusion.

Next is Woods Mattress track- it started in 2019, and according to their Bandcamp, they’ve only put out sixteen releases…Though I know they’ve put out more than this, as they appeared on several splits, too. Their track is entitled “Somatic”.  It starts off as a fairly set blend of swirling machinery-like mids and churning static, like reeling,  it feels very much akin to having a rusty and loose drill bit speeding on just by the side of your head. As the track progresses, you start to notice small breaks/ shifts in the ‘wall’, with later on some quite big/ jarring shifts occurring. I believe this is also my first taste of this project.

Both parties here sever up a crude, yet well-conceived/ fairly original texture-bound ‘walls’. So a worthy split, and I look forward to checking out more work from both projects.