
Nils Dacke - Blenda [Ominous Recordings - 2020]Appearing in October of last year here we have a rather splendid release from Swedish project Nils Dacke-who blend together dense-at-points-wallish harsh noise, with slightly seared-to-wonky ambience. Blenda is a two-tape set/download themed around a Swedish folk tale, which tells of a group rural women( led by Blenda) who got the invading Danes drunk, and then killed them in their sleep. The release appears on Stockholm based Ominous Recordings- who are one of the more prolific, yet still consistent noise labels around. The two red shelled & black paint labelled tapes(C60 + C40) come in a small white plastic box- this features a red, black & coloured cover featuring a picture of Blenda & her band of women. Also we get a piece of black fabric with screen printed on the projects logo & name. This physical release was ltd to twenty five copies- and if your quick you’ll manage to get your hands on one of the last few copies left.
The Nils Dacke project has been active since 2013- putting out so far four releases- so not the most prolific of noise projects, but going on the evidence of this time certainly one of the quality bound harsh noise entities. Behind Nils Dacke is Malmö Sweden based noisemaker/ sound creator Jurko Haltuu- who has seemingly been active in worldwide science since the early 2010s.
After a brief warped & distortion edged male & female choral music intro, we’re into the first full track “Sjöarna Glittrar I Sommarens Dagar”. Here we a just over ten minutes blend of churning static grain rush and jitter-to-forking mids/ highs- with some eerie tolling textures coming into play in the midway point, before departing again. The tracks a great & compelling mix of keenly grinding static tone, and more agitated/searing noise. As we move onto track number five “Furorna Susa I Ensliga Hagar” we find a nearing eleven & a half minute affair that sees the mixing of a thick & densely roast judder, and what sounds like bayed & ranted voice textures spread out to create sweeps of animalistic eerie-ness.
Moving onto the second tape & we open with the near-dead on ten minutes of "Värendskvinnorna"- this forces ‘n’ rubs together forking trails, with thick cluttering & shredding mid-range noise matter. By “Gemla” we’ve come to the more wonky & wavering side of the release- this nearing six & a half minute track finds melted vibe harmonics, mixed with evenly skittering knocks & bangs, all hazed by a lightly searing drone. The albums finished off by just shy of four minutes of pitch shifting moodiness and gentling skating buzzing 'n' cluttering that is “Konga”.
Blenda is one of the more rewarding & well realized textured harsh noise meets waved ambient releases I’ve heard in sometime. It be great to see someone compile together the projects early releases into some form of boxset, and I’ll certainly be keep my eye out for new Nils Dacke material!.
     Roger Batty
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