Red Hook — They Whisper

After an absence of a year or two, They Whisper is a new release from Sean E. Ramirez-Matzus (theNightproduct, A Week Of Kindness, Leather Jesus and Last Rape) dense ‘n’ dark ambient noise project Red Hook. The release was put out by Sean’s own label The White Visitation- appearing as either a C32 tape or digital download.

The release front cover is a monochrome affair- featuring a murky illustration of what looks like broken glass with the night-time stars showing through. Though it’s not totally clear what the picture is, which nicely adds another layer of mystery to the dense, dark, and grimly swirling ‘n’  gently smashing/searing soundscapes found with-in.

Each track is simply titled Voice From The Outside 1 & 2, and each is slowly building an example of crude – yet lightly ritual tripped ambience, and largely dense/ never overly intense noise making. The key/ important thing about both of these just under sixteen minutes track is thick and darkly unsettling atmospherics- which for me rather painted a mental picture of being stuck in a winter rainstorm drenched forest, late at night as a strange rusted steel and hammering wood ritual goes on around you.

So the first track opens with a lightly muffled field recording of distant rain. As we move into the track Sean adds in and builds into the track unease bass drones, very lightly forking feedback, creepy textural rubs, and this seemingly slowly engulf sway of cold lashing rain tone. At around the fourth minute, we get sudden fleeting darts of more formal percussion hits, but these never fully develop but instead hover in the background. By the fifth minute a brooding and lightly billow drone as entered, as from here on the dense-ness and feel of sodden dread press in around you.  Throughout the remainder of the track Sean effectively builds atmosphere and intensity, yet he never goes all out raging noise- keeping the blend of loose industrialized noise texturing and dense ambient just on the cusp of explosion.

Moving onto the second track, and things start off a lot more active with a blend of billowing wind rips, skittering and unsettling textural ribs, and distant yet creepy feedback drones. As we move to around the three and a half minute mark- the whole textural map is getting more rapid and busy, as if the wind rain and storm is ripping up more and more around you. At  the midway point, we get a more pronounced slow-mo billow noise tone coming into play, and these are unfed by battering rain tones, and of course the skittering textural detail- which later on Sean nicely cuts in and out and shifts around the stereo channels. There is no doubt this track is denser more moving towards formal noise-making, but it’s still run through with ambient dread and atmospherically seared detail. With more slicing highs just appearing in the tracks last few seconds- adding a slight twist of intensity to the end of the track/ release.

They Wispher is somewhat a departure from Sean’s normal either walled, textured, or straighter harsh noise sound. It’s a release that nicely sits on the cusp of loose industrial noise, creepy organic ambience, and brooding unease. If you’d like to either pick up a copy of the tape, or purchase the download  of this release head to here