The physical edition of the release found a plain black shelled cassette with scratched side lettering on- this came inside an abstracted & blurred monochrome cover. Sadly, like a lot of titles on Ominous Recordings, these tapes sold out fairly quickly- so all we’re left with now is the digital download.

Шумоизоляция/ Shumoizolyatsiya ( translated to Noise insulation) is a Russian wall-noise project- and as far as I can gather it started at some point in 2015. According to Discogs the project has put out two physical releases, and ten or so digital release- but I’m not sure how reliable this information is, as unfortunately when it comes to more obscured & underground genres like walled noise discogs can be a little unreliable. Their untitled track is the first out of the gate, and it’s a decidedly rapid & taut wall- that brings together muffled rolling like juddering, with starker & rattle bound jittering. To my ears it sounds quite cluttering & machine-like in its feel, and the starker rattle bound texture has a subtly oscillating quality to it- this nicely pulls to deep into the track violently propulsive flow, and while neither texture is groundbreaking or unique - the way the project weaves them together is most effective & entrancing.

The second project here is Rien, which is one of the projects Stockholm noise-maker Johan Strömvalll Hammarstedt, whose other projects are Gamiani, J.S.H., J S H- he also runs the Ominous Recordings label too. Rien has been active since late 2016, releasing so far around fifteen or so releases thus far. Their untitled track here pares things back after the dense & manic first side- with a ‘wall’ that sees the bringing together of a hissing & faded descending sear, this is surrounded by a network of hazed pops, snaps, and judders. These elements are weaved together in a fairly weathered & at times uneven way, with seemingly from time-to-time, both elements suddenly deviating from their set paths.  As with the first track, there’s a nicely entrancing quality to this track- but of the two I’d say I like this better as the way the textures are layered, and the textures themselves are more interesting & original.

In conclusion, this is a worthy enough split- I was aware of Rein’s past work, and this new track lives up to the same quality of the other stuff I’ve heard from the project. I think I may have heard possible one of Shumoizolyatsiya past releases, but are not as familiar with this project. Their wall, while hardly originally, is effective in its blend of textures, and it’s always nice to see more walled noise names coming from out of the Russian noise scene.