Sleep Sessions / Areyfu / Agit8 — Restrict / Suppress / Censor
The disc itself comes in a gate-fold cardboard sleeve. The art depicts a stylized dissected heart, that truthfully has the aesthetic of a modern hardcore record. It’s a nice graphic, however it reminds me more of something on Hydra Head or Sons of Vesta, not a harsh noise album. However, I guess that’s neither here nor there.
First up we have 5 compact tracks played with breakneck speed and ferocity by Sleep Sessions. These slim tracks present cut-up harsh noise, rife with: sputtering oscillators, static crunch, piercing highs, rumbling lows, sparsely used dancehall and pop music samples, reverberating vocals, silent pauses, and crushing synth noise. To attempt a play by play would result in an utter failure as SS transitions so quickly between the sounds he manipulates. I have to admit I that really get off on this type of noise. Recently I saw a conversation between some friends on my facebook page argued (in the context of noise music) that “getting your face ripped off is overrated.” While I may concur with that sentiment at times, if you do want your face ripped off you can do no better than Sleep Sessions.
Next we have 3 tracks by Areyfu. Areyfu uses a similar template as Sleep Sessions, however departs from that formula by adding a heavy dose of ambient sounds layered with the harsh noise. Areyfu’s first track “Finite Amber,” starts with some melancholy piano playing, which took me aback after being immersed in Sleep Sessions’ rollercoaster ride. It’s all really beautiful and mellow, but the track’s ambient opening becomes disrupted by broken static rumble before transitioning into some meaty harsh noise cut-up mania. Just when you think you’re gonna blow your load, the next track “Closure” cools your jets and lulls you into slumber. This 5 and ½ minute track starts out so faintly that I had to check to make sure the CD was still playing. It’s virtually inaudible for the first 1and ½ minutes before we are finally able to make out some delicate keys. At about the 3:47 mark an atmospheric mass seems to hover above the delicate piano playing….perhaps a portent of things to come. Just when you think things might take a harsh turn, Areyfu deceptively continues his trance inducing piano crawl. Of course as we succumb to our peaceful slumber, we’re shocked back into consciousness with the fittingly named “Crawl Back In.” Areyfu’s final track is a barn burner where the ambient moments of the former tracks take a passive role to crushing static shifts, sputtering oscillators, low end buzz, high/low ebbs and flows, static washes, and a panoply of other harsh tones.
The final 3 tracks of the album belong to Agit8. His 3 tracks entitled “Kokoda Trails” parts 1-3 follow in the footsteps of the other artists present on this disc. Truthfully, I was less interested in his tracks. Perhaps they shared a little too much commonality with the 8 previous tracks to really stick out for me, or perhaps I was just wiped from consuming the first ⅔ of the album. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of great cut-up going on with his tracks, a lot of static shifts, aggressive electric hum, static washes, rumbly low end, and other tones/sounds found in the harsh noiscian’s toolbox. All in all, I might’ve found his tracks more compelling if I had listened them as a part, rather than the sum of the entire album. However, in the context of the full album, Agit8’s tracks just feel overshadowed by the other 2 artists.
Restrict/Suppress/Censor is a great sampler of 3 artists presenting experimental cut-up noise. Sleep Sessions and Areyfu were definitely the highlights for me, however it’s an effective album as a whole. My only real complaint about this 3 way split is that I initially had a hard time figuring out which tracks belonged to whom. God bless Discogs!