
Birchville cat Motel - Seventh Ruined Hex [Important Records - 2007]Seventh Ruined Hex’s blurred and dreamy front cover photograph of an middle eastern carnival is very fitting for the five pieces of noise/ drone guitar on offer inside. There a captivating mix of the painful,exotic, tripped-out & disorientating. With a great feeling of spiritual wonder with-in chaos. Ghastly star opens up the album starting with quite rocking guitar tone before jumping into barbwire twist and turns of high- pitch /discordant guitar patterns, having an almost eastern/ amped up weird string world music vibe about it like a bent snake charmers song. Over time the more tranquil and rich drone quality ebb and grow giving the track a great sweet/ sour taste .The drone element has a very expansive almost cello like feel to it it shimmers with mystical promise as it grows and slowly make it’s self more known. Track three Iron Goddess o’mercy starts off with strange ethnic bell/ cymbal type hits- before scoring guitar work seers in over the top like a malevolent and painful to look at blood red sunset over a nomadic desert tribes tent village. Again keeping the wonderful balance between being sharp and jaw numbing, & beautiful, haunting and spiritual. An perfectly searing and eye watering excise in guitar noise and drone craft that’s always underlined and bleed through with easter promise, emotional charge and spitual/ psychedelic wonder. Like the most extreme form of yin & yang- painful and violent, yet at the same time rich, poignant and beautiful. Akin to slowly being hand-sawed through the head while watching the most beautiful sunset go down- unmissble stuff really.      Roger Batty
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