Released towards the end of last year Despair In The Gutter II is a thirty-one-minute example of tensely constricting, yet muffling wall-noise, themed around female sex workers and their abuse. The release appeared as either an eight-track cartridge (sold out), or digital download- I’m reviewing the latter.

Starting in 2021 Death Glaze is a Canadian walled-noise project from Ontario, and thus far has released around nine releases. These have either had horror film, or brutal sleazed themes. I was rather taken by the projects first release Madman In The Moonlight- a c120 also released on Fargo, North Dakota Black Ring Rituals Records, so I was interested to hear this release.

The single track is entitled “Despair In The Gutter” and comes in at the thirty one minute mark. It starts off with a decidedly muddy-yet-violently churning blend of blunt bass hacks, jittering rips, and a distant whistling like hover. As the track processes, I start making out faint shifting slices ‘n’ slips, and the whole thing seems to move between slightly more defined and more manic- both of these I think are a trick of the ‘wall, and in reality, this is a fairly firm wall.
At around the fifteen and a half mark, the noise breaks for two or three minutes of dialogue samples of street workers talking about being beaten and abused by clients. When the ‘wall’ come back in the bass sounds more dragged out and burred, this is joined by more pronounced cluttering and bothersome hacks, and this distant sort of swirling ‘n’ scaping industrial tone.  The whole ‘wall’ has a decidedly airless, and nasty edge- which of course nicely fits the theme of the release.

 Despair In The Gutter II follows up on the promise of the projects debut tape, and while it may not be as varied as said release-the wall featured  here is certainly rewarding in its constricting and tautly pressing air. To check this out, and download the digital release head by here.