Pig Shrapnel  is one of the projects of Santa Fe based  noise-maker Joe The Stache, and his other projects also feature fairly bizarre themes. Hoggle, is a HNW based around Jim Henson’s  1980’s classic family fantasy puppet/live action movie The Labyrinth.  Extreme Chafing is a HNW/harsh noise project based around various types of skin complaints & diseases. And Heavy Metal Vomit Party is a project that take classic 1980’s hair/glam metal fare, and converts it into a dense, searing, & truly overloaded  walled noise. Pig Shrapnel  started in 2011, and is one of Joe’s less prolific projects, as it’s only put out five releases so far taking in a few splits, a 3inc CDR, and this release which is the projects first full length.

I’ll have to admit untill hearing this release I’d only heard the projects first release, Bacon Worship which was a 3inch cdr release from 2011.  And it's fair to say I wasn’t overly taken by it's rather bland mix of HNW/ Harsh noise texturing. So I pleased to say I was a lot more impressed by Carver Of The Ham.

The release takes in four track in all, & these each run between eight & nearing thirteen mintues a piece.  First up we have “The Sharpening Of The Knives”, and this opens up with a  dense weave of descending mid-ranged frying ‘n’ swirling textures, which are unfed by a locked  distant background billowing.  From time to time on top of this thick mass you get a single thinner 'n' caught jittering tone- this textural mix stays fairly in place for the first three & a half mintues of the track, but around this point we sudden a forced into this searing mix of boiling liquid & locked/ taut descending juddering. The last half of the track sees Joe locked down into the same ‘wall’-  I can make out subtle shift with-in the layers, but really there are no huge textural shifts, and the movements he create just pull you deeper & deeper into the wonderfully searing & roasting vibe of the track.

Track two comes in the form of “Easing The Knife Into The Swine”- and this track is indexed straight in from the first one for an effective textural jump when it switchers. The ‘wall’ is built around a mass of  thinner yet swirling, ranging & billowing static patterning- this is weaved together to  create a unchanging of dense noise mat.  Through this searing mass I can make out subtle trails of single more  defined noise tones  which are either descending,  climbing, or suddenly frying in quite a searing yet almost psychedelic  manner- these  single noise lines  never break the flow or pattern of the main ‘wall’,  but instead they  add a  nice ( yet very subtle) textural detail to the whole thing.

Next up we have “Quarter Inch Slices Of Salty Pig Meat”, and this is once again is index straight in from the pervious track. This ‘wall’ is built around a desending & pummelling mass of slightly seared mid-ranged noise pattering,  which is set towards a mix of galloping  ‘n’ roasting walled noise. Running through this  central  mass of is this semi swirling ‘n’ scraping thinner noise tone-  and like the last track this element doesn’t really alter the ‘walls’ flow, but instead makes for a rewarding sub focus to the main flow.

So last up we have “Stuffed With An Evolutionary Cousin”- and this ‘wall’ is a mixture of lower-to-mid ranged rumbling & thick bubbling noise, which has a crisper layer of locked jittering ‘n’ judder noise on top.  This track seems to have less subtle layer shift in it compared to the other tracks, but it’s never the less  a most appealing in it’s searing ‘n’ bubbling unfold- and it makes for a great end to proceedings.

So in summing up Carver Of The Ham offers up four very worthy slices of walled noise, and adding in the bizarre yet fitting theme makes the whole thing very worthy of your time. I’d always enjoy much of what Joe had done with his other projects, so it’s really great to report this new Pig Shrapnel is up to the standard of his other work…here’s hoping for some more searing pork themed brutality soon!.