Various Artists - Harsh Purification [Corrosive Art Records - 2009]‘Harsh Purification’ is a four way split release that offers up a full length album a piece from each four acts involved. We have on the first two discs great prime HNW matter from An Innocent Young Throat Cutter & Vomir. Then on the other two discs we have volatile, but inspired psychedelic harsh noise from :Government Alpha & Torturing Nurse….really it’s a noise fans wet dream come true… The four discs come in a DVD box with each release having it’s own separate artwork/ cover which is on two double side full colour cards and each disc has a playing time of at least f half an hour & in most cases well over that. First up we have An Innocent Young Throat-Cutter’s album which is entitled ‘Deadly Triangle’ and it finds Richard Ramirez flying solo instead of being joined by his normal partner in AIYTC crime Cristiano Renzoni (Alo Girl & runner of the Urashima label). The album offers up three relatively short (by HWN standards) tracks that hit between just over the fourteen minute mark to just under the five minute mark. Up first is the title track which finds Ramirez rolling out a thick & surrounding walled storm of static tone, which he nicely shifts in flow & direction ever so often to keep you on your toes. Then we’re onto ‘El Juego Del Adulterio’ which is named after an old school Spanish 1973 giallo moive of the same name which in the USA was re-titled ‘Deadly Triangle.’ This track is the longest here at just over the fourteen minute mark & it finds Ramirez focusing in on a nice gritty, stark & monochrome rolling wall texture which brings to mind abused wax cylinders or bone cutting & chilling looped vinyl noise; it would perfectly fit a slo-mo blip juddered & aged black & white footage of black gloved killers prelonged slaughter. The track does'nt has as many sudden turns as the first track, but Ramirez nicely shifts the tracks pitch & suffocating static weight in a rewarding manner through-out the tracks life. Then lastly we have ‘untitled’ which is the shortest track here at just under the five minute mark & it finds Ramirez open up a rapid & violent boiling juddering slice of dense wall making to end the album off nicely. On the next disc we have an untitled album & track from the French king of HNW Vomir. The track on offer here takes in just under half a-hour of thick crusty & impenetrable wall making. Vomir offers up a nice quite sludgy mid-pace wall of sound which he rolls out in a moorish & violent manner before the listener. The wall is made up of one long furnace like roaring drone that’s rubbed against by a slower & circling crusty airless judder & Vomir makes the whole thing very hypnotic & world shutting off in its feel. As with most of Vomir takes on ‘wall making’ there’s not much movement or change through-out the track through it does have an almost spiral stair case charm about it like you just cant’ help but sonically stare down & down trying to see the bottom or the base of the track; yet you never do. Disc three takes in a thirty five minute track by Shanghai,china based extreme noise terrorist Torturing Nurse entitled ‘Corrosion Resistance’. The track jumps straight in for the throat with thick soup of searing & vein popping junk feed-back, lots of discordant threads of boiling & noise guitar matter, random runway; percussion of the underdone industrial type. Screamed & bayed female vocals, and basically anything else they can find that adds to the pure sonic attack on the senses that this track is. It’s certainly can’t be called wall noise as it’s constantly moving & shifting before your ears like a audio car crash; but there’s certainly no little let up or gaps with-in the assault of thick noise on offer here through-out the track. Like most of Torturing Nurse work this is another full on sonic attack on your ears & brain with the project falling somewhere between overloaded & careering improv, junk noise attack & general unhinged Asian soaked mayhem. You just have to let it overload & engulf you in it’s sputtering, foaming & searing mayhem. The last disc in the set is taken up by Japanese psychedelic harsh noise maker Government Alpha with an album called ‘Erebus’; on offer here are two tracks that clock up just shy of the forty minute mark. ‘Part One’ kicks in with nice harsh, laser burning & active spacey snyth like noise textures which is nicely weaved with feed-back highs & lows. Through-out the track swirls, sears and shifts nicely through lots of progressively, boiling & spaced out noise matter keeping it’s futuristic sleek yet dangerous overloaded sci-fi feel through-out. This is a lot more controlled & focused in it’s intent & atmosphere than the Torturing Nurse disc. Then lastly we have ‘Part two’ which starts off with thick & purring overload Geiger counter like seesawing of noise highs & lows before moving towards more boiling sheets of guitar meets overloaded synth textually up, downs & brain melting sears. All told the discs an excellent overloaded psychedelic end to this splendid four disc set.
Simply put ‘Harsh Purification’ is an excellent value for money & quality bound set that takes in four albums of very different yet equal rewarding & caustic examples of Harsh wall noise & general Harsh noise making. I advise quick action though, as this is only ltd to 100 copies & considered the four know & respected projects involved here this will disappear very quickly indeed!. Roger Batty
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