SBTDOH & Vomir — Mass Hysteria

Mass Hysteria is a rough ‘n’ ready noise split between west coast US harsh noise- makers SBTDOH, and French master of unchanging ‘n’ brutalizing walled noise Vomir. The release appeared on Portland Oregon based Shrouded Recordings- it came in two editions a C92( ltd to nineteen copies) and a CDR(ltd to seventeen copies), I’m reviewing the former- and both editions are still available

For the tape edition, we find a white shelled and labelled on both side tape, coming in a large orange thick paper cover. This folds out to give you two sides of messy black inked collage, and on the inside side we get the tracklisting/ credits among the monochrome and busy collage art. Also in the tightly packed case is a small fold-out inlay sheet- featuring more murky collage artwork, including( for some reason) lots of old school boom boxes. It’s a passable enough example of underground noise tape presentation.

On the SBTDOH side there are meant to be three tracks- "Filth Anthem", "Fist", and "Prthick". But really the sides tracks blend and blur into each other. What we get here is a mix of bent and pulled radio/ speech recordings, and noise elements- which go from sudden junk or electro like sears, to more rough ready harsh noise, dwells. There isn’t really anything too distinctive or stand out-ish here, but it’s all rewarding/ eventful enough. And oh at the thirty-minute mark we get around seven minutes of silence, before dropping back into sudden-yet-semi washed out noise attack and dialogue samples.

Flipping over the tape, and we have the Vomir’s untitled track- this hits spot on the forty-minute mark. This a typical no-nonsense take on the walled noise from by the Frenchman- It’s built around a mixture of rolling ‘n’ roughshod bass tones and loose cluttering’s- topped with a selection of hazed rattles and blunt hacks, which are all propelled along at a rapid/ urgent pace. Together these elements create a crude 'n' battering attack on one’s audio senses, which feels akin to been dragged along behind the back speeding, though ancient train carriage- as the wooden sleepers/ struts rattle, the steel rail vibrates, and the barren oil burnt air buffets ‘n’ bays your face. All in all, this is pretty much what you’d expect from this French wall making, though that’s not meant as a criticism- as the ‘wall’  featured here is just as rewarding and pleasingly battering as always.

 

So, in finishing Mass Hysteria is a rewarding enough split- with SBTDOH messy ‘n’ manic blend of harsh noise and dialogue samples working well alongside the roughshod and crude walled noise of Vomir. As I mentioned early there are copies of both editions still left- and to score a copy direct head here.