Thewhitehorse - An Eternity Of Black & Red [Unlimited Drift Recordings - 2011]Thewhitehorse is a solo HNW project of Texas based noise maker Sean E. Matzus(Black Leather Jesus, Last Rape, theNIGHTproduct, A Week of Kindness, [Untitled]). “An Eternity Of Black & Red” is a two c90 box set that came out in October 2011, and it offers up four side long tracks of dense & sometimes creative walled noise. The two 90 minutes tapes come in a white vinyl box that features on onside a blurred, possible film still picture of a women screaming & been attacked- the attacker is out of shot. On the side of there is a blurred picture of a ghostly type shape….so the theme here seems to be a mixture of giallo or stalk ‘n’ slash movies, and ghost based imagery….through the theme is not really clear so one can I guess put their own take on the collections meaning. On the first side we have “An Eternity Of Black And Red, Part 1”, and this track is built around a dense & tight mixture of a few elements- we have: a locked billowing wind-round-side-of-building tone, a locked electro spluttering & bubbling texture, and a locked mid ranged fairly juddering noise tonality. These elements are pushed together into a firm yet disorientating ‘wall’ that has quite a odd mad profession or deranged laboratory edge to it, due to the locked electro spluttering & bubbling elements which brings to mind vast & complex lines of bubbling 'n' spluttering different coloured test tubes. Through the track remains dense & fairly fixed through out, the electro spluttering & bubbling seem to become more mangled, and semi-industrial like as the track progress; yet these shifts are kept relatively subtle with in the ‘walls’ make-up, through it does make things seem even more disorientating. All told this first side is a rewarding if surprisingly quirky start to the release Over onto the second side of tape and we have “An Eternity Of Black And Red, Part 2”, and this track has a more convectional mix of HNW textures. It’s built around rapid ‘n’ taut lower mid-range juddering 'n' roaring tone, which is weaved around by a semi buried slightly skipping ‘n’ juddering sub-tone. The wall retains an unrelenting & battering feel through-out, with the central tone rather bringing to mind a locked rocket engine like roasting roar. On side one of tape two, and we have “An Eternity Of Black And Red, Part 3”. This track offers up a rather blurred & battering mixture of: a mid range machine droning texture, and a locked selection of rapidly juddering, clicking & shredding tones. The ‘wall’ remains rapid & unmoving over it’s whole length; and you can clearly define the constant polishing machine like drone pretty well through out, yet the second selection of locked tones remain fairy undefined, and this is what makes the ‘wall’ rather appealing as your mind tries to define the tones true shape & make-up.
And lastly on side two of tape two we have “An Eternity Of Black And Red, Part 3”, which is an unforgiving mixture of rapid ‘n’ slightly blurred juddering billowing, which is underfed by a more rough ‘n’ battering jittering sub-tone. The main juddering remains constant through-out, but the second sub-tone has some scraping & rapidly cluttering variant with-in it, which makes the whole thing sound more brutal & battering. The track rather feels like been rapidly dragged along behind a vehicle All told this two tape set offers up four brutal & unforgiving slices of dense walled noise that are effectively hypnotic & sonically battering. My favourite moment is the first sides track, as there’s a real feeling of brutally yet quirky creativity present here, I guess in a way it’s disappointing this element didn’t find it’s way into the other three walls…..but if your after brutal & unrelenting walled noise this is worth a look. Roger Batty
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