Scant/Ritual Stance — Split
The CDR comes in a simple yet effective enough yellow paper slip sleeve that features black print which takes in the projects names/track titles over a dense background, which looks like it’s a noised-up picture of a garden with a textured grind over the top of it.
First up we have the Scant track which is entitled “In Opposition Of”, and this comes in at the 39.14 mark. This is my first taster of Scant’s work, and I must say I was very taken & enthralled by this track. I guess it’s fair to say this isn’t a pure bred slice of HNW, as there are elements of drone matter & (what sounds like) manipulated field recording sounding textures with-in this track. The ‘wall’ of sound is built around a very dense yet texturally detailed mixture of three maybe four tones- first up we have this droning & sustained haunting fog horn like drone, secondly there’s this element that sounds like two or three looped organ textured, then thirdly there’s this rushing yet stuck crackling or rushing texture that sounds like close up recording of either a over flowing drain or water fall. Boettke expertly weaves all these elements together to create this very compelling brutal yet oddly haunting wall of sound. Over the tracks near on forty minute run time the textures do seem to subtle shift ‘n’ ebb around each other, but the denseness is kept in place right until the last minutes when the noise elements fade & your left with the drone back bone.
Next up of course we have the Ritual Stance track which is entitled “The Elegance Of Her Leather”, and this come in at spot on the forty minute mark. The ‘wall’ is built around a tight & airless mixture of small jittering ‘n’ juddering tones which are weaved into a dense mat of sound. Buried underneath the mat of sound is this slow roaming ‘n’ repeating bass drone element, and this rumbles out in a eerier semi harmonic manner beneath the ‘wall’. The small jittering ‘n’ juddering elements remain fixed yet feasting in their feel through-out, with the drone element giving a sombre/ ominous yet oddly pleasing zoned out vibe to the track. Again this is a very rewarding & moorish bit of ‘wall-making’ from the Ritual Stance project.
Both parties tracks here are dense, well executed, and rewarding examples of walled noise meets drone matter. And simply put this is a very rewarding split of creative wall-making.