Here we’ve got a C32/ digital split that brings together two side long examples of uneasy and atmospheric walled noise from two US projects. There’s NYC based cosmic horror-themed project The Willows, and rural Pennsylvania based Thin Mountain, which often focuses on/ themes their work around creepy fiction. 

The release appeared in May of this year on The White Visitation label. Seemingly the tape version comes within a red and black cover, featuring overlayed and creepy artwork. I’m reviewing a digital promo, so I can’t comment on the tape it’s self- aside from saying it has an edition of fifteen copies, and as of writing the label still has some left for purchase- so head to here.

So moving onto the sonics on offer- and on side one/ first up we have a track from The Willows entitled “Fear and Wide White Eyes Within A Suit”. This project is all the work of New York noise maker Nikki C(Faggot Front, Ballerina In Blood, and Figment), and seemingly the track here first work from the project in some time. The track rolls in at the 14.45 mark, and it opens up with a mix of faint industrial drone bound churning & thick spraying static. As the track progresses, we find a rather jarringly uneven ‘wall’, which moves between grinding ‘n’ gritty bass drone topped with spiralling static. Onto blends of suddenly growing droning pelts underfed by with skitter noise grains, to more free-falling shifts of grim tone grinds, and intense beaded rattle which moves towards more wall-ish harsh noise. It’s both shifting intense and jarringly unsettling with its shifts, making for a nicely unpredictable slice of horror tipped wall-craft.

 
 
Up next/ on side two we have the Thin Mountain track which is entitled “And Then If She Sings There It's a Hate Kind of Singing”- and this slides in at the slightly longer 15.33. Thin Mountain is one of the rural Pennsylvania based noisemaker Sean E. Ramirez-Matzus - theNightproduct ,Thewhitehorse, A Week Of Kindness, Red Hook and in the groups/ projects Black Leather Jesus and Last Rape with his husband Richard Ramirez. Thin Mountain has been active since 2020- putting out seven or so release so far. This ‘wall’ is of the more persistent/ thick variety compared with the first - as we find a dense forest like blend of muffled bass rushes, skittering and rough mids, and smaller grained noise which moves from manic fizzers to splitter feast, to skittering lags. There’s a nice feel of creepy unease in the guts of the whole thing, yet the main dense and intense flow of the whole thing means it really rips into your head, yet at the same time subtle unsettles too.

In finishing this is a most worth split release- with both parties showing their different takes on more atmospheric and horror fed wall-making. The Willows track is more jarring- with an unsettling underbelly, and Thin Mountain is denser and raging, yet no less creeped out in its guts.