See Through Buildings / The Rites Of Wal — The Adventures Of Duck Yoy

I know from its title this may sound like maybe a wacky-jazz fired release or something similar. But  in reality, it’s a two-way walled noise CDR split from a few years back-  where each artist offers up an around thirty-minute wall.

The release appeared as a colourfully labelled CDR, which comes presented in an equally colourful & psychedelic collage jewel case sleeved. The release appeared at the tail end of 2018 on Detroit based Trashfuck Rec, in an edition of fifty-five copies- and at present, the label has just one copy left!.

First up we have a track from See Through Buildings( aka California based Ben Reeling)- this project started in 2015, and has always tried to do something a little different with-in the walled noise genre. They’ve put out around one hundred releases, and seemingly haven’t put out too much in the last year or so. The track here is "Elegy For A Duck" this runs for just shy of the twenty-nine-minute mark- and what we have here is very blunt and hazed take on walled noise, with some slightly play-full edges/ touches here & there. The whole thing kicks off with a blend of pummeling & baying noise matter- this is extreme thick & seared, and from time-to-time we these buried waves of more musical fare- which is either warped choral music, Muzak or 50’s easy listening( maybe the reason for the releases title). As the track progresses we get sustained searings with undercarriage of a rumbling & droning- the sound though-out is extreme full & blurred in its attack, and I’ll have to admit my first few plays left me a little cold. But I persisted & it started to warm on me more- with my mind picking out both hazed spiralling & playful noise craft with sways of harmonic flotsam & jetsam. I guess you’d call the track muffled & seared wall matter with burning retro harmonics in it’s sonically flaming unfold- so once again something fairly distinct/ different from  See Through Buildings.

Next, we have a track from another US wall noise project The Rites Of Wall- this has seemingly been active since 2013, and has only put out around forty releases. The track here is entitled “Snail Equations” and rolls in at around the twenty-seven minute & forty-second mark. Once again this is a fairly active wall, but it’s a lot tenser & traditional in its feel than the first track. We get a skittering 'n' cluttering mix of ribbed low-end pellet/ rumble, hacking static nervy-ness, and sudden rolling grain compression- with latter on some high toned fan belt slipping textures coming into play. The whole thing retains a nice feeling of taught & tense shift, and I found the whole thing a lot more appealing from the off…though that’s not to downplay the first track in any way.

So in conclusion, adding to its rather strange title , sonically this is a rather weird/ unbalancing split- as we have the more dense, difficult & experimental track up first, with the more instantly appealing & straight track coming in last.