
Ahlzdeveloper - Ahlzdeveloper [Phage Tapes - 2016]This untitled cd is a compilation of six untitled tracks originally released on various compilations across a couple of labels. Ahlzdeveloper themselves are a (harsh) noise duo who’s only release is this album and a cassette of twofurther untitled tracks. I do like the utter anonymity of this release, the album being solely about the music and not about the personal ego trip of the outfit.
Immediately upon the CD starting you are thrown straight into the noise wall that is this music. It’s a brutal cacophony of tones delivered at break neck speed with the all the subtlety of an attack from a rabid dog. That said, once you dig beneath the surface there is a definition and artfulness to this collage that the immediate noise masks.
Each track is a pronounce display of utter terror, but within that terror there is a tiny floating bubble of utter calm and that’s the space you occupy. Turning in and around upon yourself as the chaos and confusion engulf and envelop you. You can simply hear this, or you can immerse yourself in it at your leisure / pleasure.
Track three is the longest piece on the album. It’s utilising lower end frequencies as it’s backdrop, and spends a lot of the time stuttering it’s way through its fourteen minutes, but this only add to the uniqueness of it. There are silences, and almost a middle eight to bridge the track!
As attacks go this is up there with Merzbows’ finest mid 90’s period, where the aural assault and battery were almost more important than thedelivery. Ahlzdeveloper aren’t making music to alert you to some seedy underbelly of existence, they aren’t attempting to patronise the normality of your life. With this album they are making noise, and it might be noise for noises sake, but quite frankly that probably the purest reason to make it.
You are left wishing the album had a follow up, as each track is markedly different from the previous one. Ahlzdeveloper show they have a huge talent for the scree and screech of aural (dis)pleasure and the outfit themselves should have made a larger impression on the noise world. However, I can honestly say that what they have released is angelic in it’s ferocity.      Adam Skyes
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