Small Hours/ Clive Henry — Split

This split CDR release brings together the work of two of the most creative & consistent figures working in today’s uk/euro HNW scene. We have Small Hours,which is one of the projects of Northampton based wall-maker James Killick, and this projects work focuses in on a fairly progressive mix of HNW & ANW. And then we Southampton based Clive Henry, who also creates an often quite progressive mixture of HNW/ANW.

This release appeared in early 2014, as a private release by Mr Henry, and as with any release put out by Clive the packaging here has a nicely pro & arty look to it- taking in his house style of 5 or so art cards, which feature texts & artwork relating to the each projects track.

The split takes in a track a piece from each artists. And first up we have  a track from Small Hours that is entitled  “Billy Flynn”(which is the name of one of the main characters in the Broadway musical Chicago), this track comes in at spot on the twenty five minute mark.  It opens with a slowly fading in bleak juddering 'n' crackling fed ‘wall’- this feels a lot more stark & cold than a lot of Mr Killick's  work, and to me there’s an almost chilling blacked metal  stark-ness to it. But then the mood cleverly shifts, as at the 4.30 minute mark we get a sample from one of the musical numbers from the Chicago stage show fading in, as the ‘wall’ slowly dies back for a few moments letting the song sample play on it's own. But fairly soon a new ‘wall’ comes in, & it’s a deep roasting bass bound one which seems to be literally drilling through your head with it’s searing mass…mixed into the ‘wall’ is this very muffled harmonic feel that’s just at the edge of the ‘wall’, and this seems to be following  the swinging melody of the show tune which has now completely faded.  By around the 9th minute the whole thing starts to haze & drift out with this rushing water element, as it slowly but surely becomes more bounded to the dense (now) ANW flow of the track. By the 12th minute another ‘wall’ has risen up, & this ones built around a crude ‘n’ blunt deep skipping texture, which tumbles out you in quite a sharpe ‘n’ dense manner. At the 15.30 minute mark, we get another sample from Chicago…and once again the ‘wall’ thins right back, and the sample plays on it’s own. Then fairly soon another ‘wall’ comes in & this time it has a rapid & racing feel of tearing ‘n’ battering textured static, which works prefect with the musical crescendo of the sample…but fairly soon this fades & we’re left with just the wall, which nicely seems to be pulling and battering you in two slight different directions with quite a invigorating storm feel to it. At around the 20th minute mark, the ‘wall’ seems to open up to this more complex ripping element which seems to be continually tearing it’s self through the centre of the track.

All told this first track is a great bit of subtle shifting ‘wall’ craft, and the musically elements really add a distinctive flavour to it.  In his well written & rather touchingly linear notes Killick explains that the track is a tribute to one of his students( his day job is as a teacher for people with in the Autistic Spectrum). The student in question suffers  from Asperger syndrome, and is normal very withdrawn & reserved, but when he played the character of Billy Flynnn in a local production of Chicago- he completely changed to become the role of Billy Flynn, with all it’s showy flare & animation.

Next up of course we have the Clive Henry's track, and this is rather bizarrely entitled “Hear It Ring-a-ring-fucking-ding”( and oddly there’s little or no ringing in the track!). This track is the longer of the two tracks here coming in at 32.40 mark, and it opens quite a shifting & unpredictable manner- for the first 14 or so seconds we get a deep rumble with thin gritty static texture on top, then just when you think it’s going to go all out dense & thick wall-bound, it sudden thins down to line of thin rattling static grain, then around the two minute mark we go into this mix of several different slice ice/snow textures. Then (even more un-expectedly) at the three minute mark we drop into complete silence….which is broken ever so often by this faint stretched 'n' throbing texture. By around the 6th minute the stretched throb is drifting in more & more(before finally disappearing), and behind this we get a slowly fading in mesh of crisp ‘n’ galloping grey static grain, which has a few slightly skipping points in with it. As the track progresses Mr Henry stays with this same element, but he’s slowly & subtle adding in touches of almost harmonic bass grain ‘n’ rumble…then at the 10th minute we move into a more chalky like  juddering ‘n’ dragging feel, which is mixed with a line of consistently grained bass tone.  From here onward Mr Henry cleverly & subtle shifts through several more  rewarding & often surprising textual patterns…I won’t go on and chart ever minute of the track here, as I think that would ruin the unfold, surprising, and rewarding textural details…but trust me it’s a very detailed & cleverly convinced bit of static texturing which effortless flits between HNW & ANW. Theme wise it seems the track is touching on boredom, entertainment, and the human condition, and there’s a page of text laying-out the tracks themes.

So  all in all this is a great release- with each of the two tracks proving both artist precise & detailed texturing skills, and an ability to create detailed, inventive & thought provoking wall-craft…really a must have item, if you can still get hold of one!.