
Stand Master - Purple Haze [Ominous Recordings - 2019]Purple Haze is the second physical release from Stand Master- a Texas-based HNW project that themes all of its work around Jojo's Bizarre Adventure- an eight-part manga comic series based the adventures of the Joestar clan, a family whose various members discover they are destined to take down supernatural foes using unique powers that they each possess. This release from late October appeared on Stockholm based Ominous Recordings- coming as a C30 or digital download, and what we have here is two-quarter of hour examples of tight and urgent wall mater. The tapes cover has a color scheme of several shades of purple, black and white- on it's front cover is a thin hairy-chested man in a harlequin shaped costume with the project's name in white text behind it. The inside takings in a comic panel, Japanese writing and the tracklisting. The tape version of the release appeared in an edition of seventeen copies- and as of this review, the label have only a few copies left for purchase.
I heard this project first release Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap- a CDR that appeared on Void Singularity Recordings early this year, and that offered a single forty five minute wall. So it’s nice to see how Stand Master works with-in the shorter walled format. The first track here is “The Definition Of Ferocity”, and here we find a tightly packed blend of hacking lows and thinner snaps, pops, and clutters- together these create a nicely gripping & encasing ‘wall’, that rather nicely pulls you in with its tense sort of permanently cascading quilty. I really enjoy the small & thinner textures here, as there ‘s just enough play/ variation in them to keep you entranced/ hooked- yet they are also fed out in a rewardingly urgent manner.
Flipping over to the other of tape, and we find “Attack Like An Explosion... And Retreat Like A Storm”- and this side ‘wall’ feels slight bit lose in its attack, yet never the less it remains a dense & continually pelting example of HNW. We find a mixture of slight bubbling and feasting lows/ mids, which are bayed by cluttering slightly spitting static meshing. Again the whole thing grabs you from the off and keeps you held though-out. If pushed I’d say the first sidetrack was my favorite of the two, as I love the cascading hypnotic feel of the whole thing- but this ‘wall’ is none too shabby.
So in concluding I’d say Purple Haze is a good follow-up to the promise of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap- with both ‘walls’ keeping the urgent and tight feel, as well as offering a memorable enough selection of textures at play.      Roger Batty
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