
Ritual Stance - Struggle & Seduction [Breaching Static - 2013]It’s been a little while since I’ve heard anything from this atmospheric & often creative Richmond, Virginia based HNW project, so it’s great to have this recent(ish) release. “Struggle & seduction” is a single track CDR which offers up just over 74 minutes of dense yet subtle morphing walled noise. The single self titled track starts off being based around a dense, thick & inclosing mixture of :mid-to-high pitched squeaking like wheel repetition, feasting & rumbling mid-to-low range locked noise churn, and a few jittering & scraping sub-tones. These elements are knitted together this thick & airless mass which seems to full encase you in it’s tense yet appealing unfold. With the feasting & rumbling noise elements making for a nice counterpart for the squeaking texture. Around the 35 minute mark the squeaking like wheel repetition starts to slowly die down with in the ‘wall’. And so as it slowly fades back & back it’s the feasting ‘n’ rumbling churn that becomes more & more the main focus here. Yet even these textures start to become more lumbering & slowed in their repetition too, as the track starts to become quite dense ANW like with this neat more slow purring vibe going on, as the whole ‘wall’ subtle slows down more & more. I’ll have to admit when I first played through this track it really didn’t grab me, as I felt the tones lacked longevity. Though after another few more plays I started to enjoy & get entranced by the track. And now I find myself really enjoying the very subtle morphs & shifts of the textures with-in the ‘wall’. “Struggle & Seduction” is very much of a grower- you've just got to give it time & a few plays, and you’ll really start to appreciate & enjoy the textural meeting of tones, and their very subtle morph/shift.      Roger Batty
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