Rez Epo/Pregnant Spore - Varptar Zotola [Chaosynod - 2011]This Polish vs American CDr (it's spray painted - haters of this media be warned!) split comes in a slim dvd case and comes on Rez Epo's own label Chaosynod, accompanied by a black and white artwork that is just ok. Mind that "Just ok" will be the keywords for this review. First track "Sciloplascma" by Rez Epo is a very traditional and, obviously, long dark ambient piece. As usual with this kind of stuff, the track's intensity slowly builds up to reach a climax towards the end, with various rumbling, throbbing, droning synth lines slowly creeping onto each other. This track didn't grab my attention much, but I admit it's pretty well made and that I guess it works as an ambient piece. Rez Epo's second track "Depsylact" is still dark ambient, but it's a few steps closer to the atmospheres of classic "german"-style power electronics. The slightly aggressive timbre of the synth sounds, the use of what seems like heavily echoed/delayed field recordings, the way they interlope and the variety of the piece make this track a bit more interesting than the first one but still this piece didn't click that special button in my head. Last two tracks are left to Pregnant Spore, a project led by the owner of the infamous label Rainbow Bridge. His first track "The Party-Over-Principle-Disease" kicks in very loudly, quite appropriately tons of dbs more than Rez Epo's efforts. It's mainly simple contact microphone harsh noise sounds, interrupted by abrupt silence, swooshing synth (delay?) sounds and unintelligible screaming vocals. The piece is erratic and confusional, and i feel that in this case Pregnant Spore's exuberance leads to a loss of focus and therefore to an unsuccessful track. Overall the sounds are not so juicy and good, and the guy just doesn't seem to stop: just when he gets the "right" sound, he immediately moves forward to the next one. Fortunately this piece is not very long. The follow up track "The Sound Of The Destruction Of The Left-Right Paradigm" is mixed a bit less loudly and it's more coherent. It's basically distorted synth and harsh noise crackle, with a good movement and an unexpectedly mean mood. The sounds leant a bit towards the psychedelic territory, but maybe it's just the kind of synth tones. Sometimes this piece loses strength and punch, but mostly it's pretty solid.
So, overall this split is just ok. I can't say I'm too excited about this material but I'm sure the variety of "Varptar Zotola" will be satisfying to some. Nicola Vinciguerra
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