Reaching Needles/Hana Haruna — Split

Here’s a wall noise split bringing together two eighteen-minute examples of the genre, which blend murky to roasting wall craft with an uncurrent of surreal/ wackier texturing. Featured here are Ottawa, Ontario-based Reaching Needles, and Portland Oregon-based Hana Haruna.

This release is a digital-only affair on Basement Corner Emissions. The cover artwork features a redly apocalyptic photo of a gridlocked road, with a burning city in the background. The release can be found here for a direct download 

So first out of the gate we have Reaching Needles with a track entitled “Enablers”. Here we find a mix of muffled shunting judder and distant buffeting rumbling-fed below these is a low-key wacky backdrop of sped-up and high-pitched bubbling to stretched voices. It’s certainly an unusual mix for a ‘wall’- with the murky, and almost cartoonish underlay. I must say it took a few plays to fully click with me, but now  I appreciate its blend of the hopeless and deranged. This of course fits the cover artwork's end-of-the-world scenario well

 

Next/ lastly, we of course have the Hana Haruna track, this is entitled “Takizawa Nonami”. Here we find a looser and rushing blend of rattling static cascades and off in the distant low-end fork ‘n’ batter. Underneath, this we have circular and oscillating hight pitched harmonic wavering ‘n’ flow- which has a rather surreal-yet- dammed fiery feel to its attack. Which of course has a rather apocalyptic, everything going crazy/ melting vibe to it.

So, in conclusion, this is a split with a neat theme, that’s carried well across both tracks well. Each track stands on its own, but together they make for a compelling and effective split release- that will appeal to those who like their wall-craft more warped and wonkier.