
Yotzeret Sheydim - Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation) [Deathbed Tapes - 2023]Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation) is another journey in highly creative/ adventurous harsh noise sound crafting from Pittsburgh-based Alyx II. It’s a C60/ digital release, which sees the trans-gendered noise-maker/ Jeweller creator blending in elements of traditional Jewish chants, synth ‘n’ subtle beat craft, and guttural-to-wailing vocal elements into her sound for a wonderfully unpredictable and extremely re-playable release- which is not something you can often say about noise as a genre. Yotzeret Sheydim started out in the year 2021. To date, it has around ten or so releases to its name- with many of these having a clear creative and often cross-sub-genre noise sound- which is seemingly growing/ expanding with each new release. This certainly makes it one of the more rewarding and creative noise projects around in the scene at present- really sticking out to create its very distinctive sound & identity, which is often influenced/ inspired by the more occultic reaches of Judaism.
Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation) takes in nine tracks- these have runtimes between one and fifteen minutes a piece. We move from the pulsing-to-space bound cascading synth craft, tight snapping beat craft, and warbling/ wavering/ bayed vocals of “If Language Is The Only Barrier, Then I Am Both Wall Breaker And Gate Keeper In My Own Garden” which starts off fairly straight and almost taut synth pop-meets 70’s space crafting, before Alyx II slowly but surely noisily warps the whole thing- which by its end features decidedly emotional vocal warbling.
There’s crackle ‘n’ pop fed, scarping ‘n’ fork electro-edged, and low-key atmospheric sweep of “Crouched On The Floor, Drawing Sigils And Picking At Scabs”. We have the light galloping textured noise meets flute-like seesawing ‘n’ fiddle of “A Replica Of A Sliver Of The Toenail Of A Major Demon, Cast In Copper”. With the album playing out with the mournful ‘n’ wonkily retro synth tone drift, detail-building noise beats, and spiritual simmer of “Valley Of Unheard Prayers (featuring Lilith Nil)”.
Sadly the physical version of this release has now long sold out- but it’s still available as a digital download here. If you enjoy noise craft, which is both creative, moody, and at times harmonically haunting in its intent you have to check out Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation). Another great release from Yotzeret Sheydim, and I really cannot wait to hear what the project does next!.      Roger Batty
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