Rien/Zachary Ledsinger — Split
The plain black shelled cassette is presented in a monochrome single-sided sleeve- this features very murky & grim collage work, and minimal white texts on a plain black background- so simple yet effective presentation.
First up we have an untitled track from Swedish project Rien- and as usual with this project, we get a nicely compelling & rewarding example of pared back-but-taught textured noise craft. The track brings together a tightly hacking ‘n’ slightly jumping static juddering, with an undercurrent of constantly hissing tape muffle. The judder has a nicely sprightly-yet-at-times darting off pattern quality, while the hiss has a pleasing & gentle searing quality to its flow. Together these create a most appealing wall- that’s both tense, yet moorish in it’s constricting sonic grip.
Flipping over the tape and we have a track from Texas noise maker Zachary Ledsinger, whom had put out more than a few worthy releases under the No123noise project in the past. Once again we get an untitled title- and this opens with a muddly & cluttering low-end judder- that sounds akin to a near stalling deep bass hack ‘n’ spluttering motorbike. On the edge of this central/ main tone, we get crinkle ‘n’ crackle sub-tones, which nicely adds rewarding subtleties to the crude bass clutter. As the track moves along we get a few suddenly darting different textural detail be it reverb bound snaps or creased sputter, which adds a feeling unpredictability to the wall. At points, it feels like the whole thing is going grind to a halt, yet it never does with Ledsinger creating a most enjoyable flow.
All told this is most, most worthy split- with both parties severing up their own distinct take on textured matter. I’m really rather surprised to see that there are still copies of this release left really, as both artists are well thought of/ respected in the scene- and each side is most rewarding…so do your self a favour, pick-up a copy of this & support the walled noise underground!