
ELEKTR0BATH - HNW [Gates of Hypnos - 2023]ELEKTR0BATH is a new walled noise project from Warsaw Poland. And the rather unimaginatively titled HNW is a three-track/twenty-eight-minute digital release. It appears on Poland’s Gates Of Hypnos- who at one point were one of the key labels releasing all things walled noise, though in the last year, they seemed to have drifted to release more genre-varied noise and dark ambient fare. The release features a black-and-white picture of a flower display in a small milk churn- so I’m not really sure what the theme is meant to be here.
As far as I can gather from ELEKTR0BATH bandcamp- they started in late 2022, with five other self-released digital titles to their name- and oddly they all have the same flowers in a milk jug artwork as this release. Anyway, onto the ‘walls’.
Featured here are three tracks. We first have “Track A”- this runs at dead on the 10.04 mark, and is a crudely ragged blend of slightly swarming low-end roasting billow, fixed cluttering descent, and thick static hack. I like the central vibe of loosely roasting bass bay here, and the whole thing has a rewarding feeling of out-of-control fire ‘n’ roast. The second track is “Track B”, and once more comes in at dead on the 10.04 mark. Here we find rushing static grit ‘n’ bay meeting rapidly juddering at time smarting thinner grain rush. Again I enjoy the loose, almost break-free tone of the track.
Lastly, we have (you guessed it!) “Track C”- this is the shortest of the three tracks at 8.04. Here we find a tight ‘n’ tense descend static judder, topped with a higher ranged roller/ ball-bearing tone. This track feels more akin to the industrial wall noise side of things- I enjoy it, though I’m not sure if it fits in with the other two tracks here.
In finishing it’s always great to see new wall noise acts stepping into the scene- and I must say sonically this is a promising three-track release- I just wish more effort had been made with the titling of the release, its theme/ artwork, and the rather uninspired track titling… I know classic wall noise acts have used similar tropes in the past, but this just feels lazy- especially when the ‘walls’ themselves show promise. To check this release out for yourself drop by here      Roger Batty
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