Gen 26 - Eurountation: Live [Harsh Noise London - 2020]Eurountation: Live, is as its title describes a live album featuring a selection of four recordings made between 2016 & 2018 by Slovenian Harsh noise project Gen 26. The noise setting here is very much focused on grainy & feasting harsh noise- which at points moves towards noise drone & walled noise, but never truly gets to either. The release appeared in the latter part of 2020 and was put out in the form of CDR on Harsh Noise London. The four tracks here each run between ten and eighteen minutes – with a total runtime of sixty one's minutes. Surprisingly for a release featuring recordings from two-three year period, the sound setting fairly consist & similar- so I’m not sure if this either means the projects sound didn’t really change over this period, or if these recordings were picked for there similarity.
Opening the release have “Live at Brno Noise fest 09/10/2016”- this starts with this amassed sort of chirping/ baying wash of sound, which sounds like it could be layered bird recordings. By the minute & a half mark we’ve moved into a slowly scrubbing 'n' feasting thick grained static setting- and from here on we get subtly variations in low-to-mid toned washes and sears of noise. Due to the movement here you never get to point of been tranced-out by the whole thing, instead, it’s akin to being assail on a sea of fair rough grey & white hiss bound static.
By track three we’ve onto the spot on sixteen minutes of “live at Hlukova Mysteria 13-14/09/2019” here we open with two men talking in a fairly monotone & persistent manner- it’s not in English so I’m guessing Slovak. Fairly soon a thick matt of swirling & roasting noise is slowly fed in, with the talking finishing soon. On this track the noise layers are seemingly going against each other to create an awkward wash of noise. These layers often shift & move over each other, though there seems little structure or composition to the whole thing.
The final track here is “Live at harsh noise London 23/11/2019”, and is the shortest track at ten minutes & twenty seconds. Here we find a more focused & urgent track, as it’s built around slowly shifting layers of more lengthy hiss 'n' sear bond rushing noise. The tones here have a more pleasing chalky slide & pull quality about them, with the tones nicely grinding & hazing into one's ears. And in the last two or so minutes we get some slightly deeper sears been added into the mix. Of the four tracks here this is most certainly my favourite.
In finishing there is certainly a place & a need for this type of grainy-yet-searing harsh noise. But personally, I prefer either very active/ tone shifting noise, or solidly droning or texturing noise- so Eurountation: Live really wasn’t my cup of sonic tea. Roger Batty
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