Monuments Are No Good To The Dead - Earths Hum-Volume 3 & 4 [Ominous Recordings - 2018]It must be a good few years since I’ve heard anything from this Michigan based project; who creates lengthy trips into balky-yet-often fairly active walled noise. Here on Stockholm based Ominous Recordings- we have a C64/ digital releases of Vols 3 & 4 in the projects Earth’s Hum Series. Before we get into the review, I think it’s best to put my cards on the table- firstly I’m not the biggest fan of more active/ shifting wall matter. And secondly (and possibly due to my preferences) I’ve had somewhat mixed feelings about this projects past work. So with all that in mind, I must say I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this release.
Each side of tape takes in a single thirty-minute track- so on side A we have "Earth’s Hum Vol 3", and this is certainly my favorite of the two tracks here. After a few minutes of seared ‘n’ shifting textural dragging, juddering, and hacking- which sounds akin to amplified string recordings- we sink into the main meat of the composition. This ‘wall’ is a violent cascading & rapid snaking blend of beaded bass churning, & constantly descending static- which is edged by the odd clashing & smashing sub-tone trail. The ‘wall’ remains huge, weighty & crushing through-out, though the whole thing has this wonderful worming & burrow quality- which brought to my mind images of some vast hundred foot long worm making its way through a dead cityscape- as it half burrows & half shifts though buildings, roadways, and abounded vehicles. The whole ‘wall’ has such a hypnotic feel to it, and as soon as it kicked into its groove- I was hooked into its constricting & crashing unfold.
Flipping over the tape, we, of course, have "Earth’s Hum Vol 4". And this sides ‘wall’ is a lot more active & shifting in its structure- we move from atmospheric, almost synth-like billowing judders- which are underfed by boiling bass singers & thinner wind like bays. Onto dense tangles of constricted static & blunt bass tunneling. Though to caves of crumbling juddering, and buffeting-yet- slight squelch sear. Onto blunt bass humps, those are scathed by crackles & jitters of compressed static. Though-out there is a fair bit of shift occurring- yet this atmosphere of buzzing & brooding malevolence is present, and while I don’t enjoy it as much as the first sides 'wall'- it’s rewardingly eventful, and fairly distinctive in it’s blacked tunneling & churning approach.
So in summing this release, I’d say if you're looking for dense, yet blackly moody wall-matter that can be at times fairly shifting & active I think you’ll dig what we have here. The release appeared in a physical addition of 17 copies, and according to the labels Bandcamp there are still copies left…so if this sounds like your type of thing, I’d act sooner, than later. Roger Batty
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