Sebastian Tomb — Homicide Costume

Homicide Costume is a new two-track release for Halloween from Sebastian Tomb. It sees the Berlin-based wall noise project, offering up (what initially seems) to be a slightly more formal/ if active take on the genre, compared with their often more progressive/envelope-pushing sound, the project is known for.

This is a self-digital release with a runtime of around thirty-three minutes, so I guess you’d say it sits between being an EP and a short album. For the cover artwork, we have a photo of a statuesque woman in a black, cobweb-like dress.  The release can be found here. 

The first track is entitled “Dress” and is the longer of the two tracks at 20.15. It’s built a rapid/ slightly muffled baying bass tone- this is edged with touches of rattling static grain, snap ‘n’ pop, and low-key rub ‘n’ scratch. As the track progresses, we get moments of more on/off, smaller detail shift & ebb. Appearing towards the middle of the track, I’m sure I can make out faint/ but rather haunting music/ weird scratchy chattering voices. With the low-end/ bass elements becoming definitely more roughshod/earthy the further the track goes on. All told, a most effective ‘wall’ with some rewardingly subtle shifts in its flow.

The other track here is entitled “Bangles” This runs at dead on the thirteen-minute mark. It opens with this amassed/ though murkily rattling/ ringing feel- fairly soon, a blend of rushing water & rattling bass tone is added, as well as a slowly slicing/ dragging tones are added.  As things progress, I can make out more touches of eerier rattling bell tones, and a hoveringly haunting drone element- which over time start to map out more eerie harmonic touches.

Homicide Costume is a release that truly opens up/rewards more by headphone play/ repeated listening. Feeling akin to a seemingly normal photo that the closer you look, it gets more eerie and unsettling. And maybe, just maybe, there’s a creepy old hag hiding within the statuesque woman on the cover.