
Geert Kohler - I Have Boilers [Ominous Recordings - 2020]I Have Boilers is a texture noise tour de force that blurs the lines between active walled noise, often droned out/ industrialized harsh noise, and darting textured noise craft. The release appears in the form of C40/digital download on Ominous Recordings- sadly the tapes all sold out now, but you can of course score the download…which is well worth doing as this is such a worthy release. The plain white shelled tape comes in flip-side ploy case- this features a double-sided monochrome sleeve that takes in photos of broken/ old boilers and a derelict bathroom.The release had a physical release of just seventeen copies- and as mentioned above these are now all gone.
I first became aware of Italian project Geert Kohler in 2018 with the release of C20 release Your Blonde Wife- also on Ominous Recordings. And I was very much taken by the projects' texturally active & creative take on wall/ wallish noise, and with I Have Boilers they have most certainly up to their normal highly creative-yet-face grating standards- with each side severing up two great & at times jarring-to-lightly atmospheric trips into textured noise making.
Each side of tape features a fairly lengthy track title, that takes in both porn, cult film & bathroom references- I won’t detail the whole titles here…leaving you to discover these for your self. Also, I won’t detail every twist, turn & dart of each, as it would become a little dull & cumbersome- as each track does cover a lot of ground, instead I’ll give you a rough idea of textural/ sound scope. So on the first sides track we start with a high pitch swinging sustain- then this moves into a chugging mid-to-high ranged gallop- this keeps stopping for both lines of crisp & meaty crackle, and baying pitching sustains. Later on, we go from lines of mid-range jitter & forking highs, through to typing sounds sudden ripped apart by jagged tonal rips, before shifting into blends cluttering static and mid-range bays edged with sudden squalls.
Flipping over to the second side- and we begin with uneven line of low-case crackles, then bang a sudden mid-to-high blend of bay ‘n’ swirl. As we move on- we go from a rumbling mass of industrial rolling like churn, and sour/ slow pitch- shift. Through to dwells in circling & duel drone, that explode in sudden a massed mid-to-high pitched bays. Later things move onto more detailed lines of crackle, crunch, and rattle, and beyond. Each side is as varied as the other, and each is as entrancing.
If your looking for shifting, yet always inventive textured noise- that sits between walled & wallish noise I Have Boilers is a great, great example of the genre- another winner on Ominous Recordings, and well worth pick-up, even if it’s in digital form!.      Roger Batty
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