Churner/Whore’s Breath - Convergence of Happiness, a World at Peace [Stemms Audio - 2002]Convergence of Happiness, a World at Peace is a walled noise split with a fiery and violent protest theme. And the two walls here- one from Tennessee Churner, and the other from Cincinnati’s Whore’s Breath, are both suitably searing ‘n’ battering examples of the HNW form. The release is a digital download on Stemms Audio- with the cover artwork taking in a black and white picture of flame engulfed riot, which rather gave me an Anarcho-punk vibes. The release can be downloaded from directly from here. Both of the tracks featured here hit at around the twenty-five-minute mark, and each is a baying to battering ride into the walled noise form.
First up we have the Churner track “005-AVT”. It opens with a mix of forking fold and burring cable purr, though fairly soon a thickly hacking judder and crudely cluttering line of static is added into the mix to create a dense and violent wall. As we progress we get a baying blend of lows and mids, with searing waves of highs surfacing quite often to scald one's nerves. The whole thing has a rapid and highly raging flow to its attack- with imagery of bodies slammed by rubber bullets, flaming riot shields, smoke reddened eyes, and raw blood spitting throats coming to mind. The ‘wall’ nicely twists and turns through its violent whirlwind of textures- making sure it’s eventful and rewarding throughout, as active wall noise goes this is pretty damn fine.
Next, we of course have the Whore’s Breath track “No Favor”, and this is a more set and battering example of the wall form. We find a mixture of rolling ‘n’ droning billow, rapidly cluttering rattle, and slight skittering static grained jitter. Tonally we have just lows and mids here, with the sound being a lot blunter and ragging than the first track. I’m get a feeling of the last ebbs of a riot-as both protestors and police stagger, as they still just about fight on as the streets and fallen bodies flame and smoke. This track is a nice contrast to the first track, and works well in the context of the split.
If you enjoy searingly thick and bone battering HNW then Convergence of Happiness, a World at Peace- will definitely appeal to you. All in all a most worthy split from these two US walled noise projects. Roger Batty
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