She Walks Crooked - Untitled [Mechanical Presence Records - 2022]Untitled is a new(ish) three-track release from Pittsburgh PA wall noise project She Walks Crooked. The ‘walls’ featured have runtimes between eight and seventeen minutes, with each offering its own appealing pull. This CDR/ digital release appeared in November of last year on Asbury Park, New Jersey Mechanical Presence Records. The plain white labelled CDR comes presented thin manilla card envelope with a flip top- cover artwork wise we get stuck on monochrome side on picture of British/ French actress & singer Charlotte Gainsbour- who has influenced many of the project's releases- with this all been wrapped with thin twine. The physical release came in an edition of twenty-five copies, with the label only having a few left- so act now, or regret later. Drop in here
All three tracks are untitled here. The first is the shortest at the eight-minute fifty-two mark- it brings together a mid-range galloping-come-almost aquatic judder, which is rushed over by thinner-grained sear ‘n’ clutter. The whole ‘wall’ possesses both a feeling of urgency and constant rushing to suck involvement- the blending of watery and static grain viscosity works like a dream, to create a most entrancing opening to proceedings.
The second track is the longest of the three at seventeen minutes and forty-two seconds. Here we find a rapid, if slightly unevenly rolling low end, with cluttering static and low grade- constant static pop. The low end, for some reason, is giving me a sort of rolling-in paint-like feel, while the subtones feel slight bucking ‘n’ banging in their feel. Together these elements create another captivating ‘wall’, which blends interesting & cleverly created textures in a most rewarding manner.
And finally, we have the third track- which rolls in at the thirteen-minute and thirty-two-second mark. We open with a mixture of dense slight shunting churn, cluttering rolling, and skittering static grain mesh. By around the fifth minute, the whole thing seems to focus down on a more mid-paced cluttering-yet meaty hacking flow – which feels like the marking out of an even monster claw trail. I’m not sure if this track is as engrossing as the other two ‘walls’- but it's not bad at tall in it's crashing and encasing feel.
Untitled is another worthy addition to She Walks Crooked back catalogue- personally, I found the first two tracks the highlight here, but the final tracks none too shabby either. Roger Batty
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