Small Hours — Julianne
The release is a walled noise tribute to Julianne Alexandra Hough; whose a country music singer, professional ball room dance & actress. Her 2008 debut album Julianne Hough debuted the US billboard 200 chart at no 3, and no 1 in the billboard country chart. And her main acting parts have being in the remake of Footloose & Rock Of Ages.
This release consists of a single sided c24 tape & a 3 inch mini CDR- in whole the release only offers up just over 24 minutes of walled noise, but as already mentioned it’s the very elaborate packaging that captures youe eye first. The tape & CDR come inside a sturdy cardboard box, which features two stuck on bits of artwork- on the front cover we have Ms Hough’s spraying a quiff into her long blond hair. On the back of the box is a spray paint splattered label that takes in mock type writer text & a picture of Ms Hough’s with her eyes crossed out.
When you open up the box you first get a thick double sided piece of card, which features more four colour pictures of Ms Hough- along with the gold & spray paint splattered mini CDR. Under this we have another couple of inlay cards- again both of these are colour & classy looking featuring more eye crossed out pictures of Ms Hough's. Under these insert/ inlays is the cassette which is nested in a good chunk of slightly driped/spray-painted generic foam. The cassette sleeve once again features another colour picture of Ms Hough’s, and the tape it’s self is pink spray painted on one side. The whole thing comes across as the product of a slight disturbed stalker/ fan of Ms Hough’s.
So lets move onto the sounds with-in. First up we have the 3ich CDR, and this takes in a 12.07 track entitled “If You Only Knew”. This track starts off with a sample of Ms Hough’s cover of Extremes “More Than Words”- which gets swooning strings added to the songs original/ effective vocal & acoustic guitar setting( I must say I liked the original version of the song, but this cover leaves me cold, with it’s rather mock glossy sentimentality…anyway back to the matter at hand!). At around the minute twenty mark the sample disappears, and is replaced by a low organic type bubbling or low rumbling texture- this brings to mind either a close up recording of plant matter filtering water, or maybe the slowed sleeping pulse ‘n’ flow of someone’s internal organs. The whole things rather effectively soothing yet a little bit creepy too. Around the 3.30 mark, a more rumbling & growing crack texture is added to the original textures, and the whole thing is nicely filled out with its rich yet eerier organic feel. As the track progresses it effectively builts up with more active tonal detail, then thins back to more slow-pumping rumbles- maybe suggesting the slowly of a heart beat …. then the track slow fades-out to just a more stripped & rapid pulse texture…before sadly we get one more burst of Ms Hough’s cover!. Though I didn’t enjoy the sample elements at the start & finish of the track, I must say the rest of the track was a most appealing & rewarding slice of organic tipped ANW.
Next we have the tapes track, and it’s entitled “Where I belong”. And once again this starts with a sample of Ms Hough’s 'muisc'- this time is another rather over produced mix of clean strummed acoustic guitar & big pop rock/ country production with a slightly gospel like lyrical theme (once again it’s far too mock & glossy for me, but I’m moving away from the point again!). At just before the minute mark a slightly wavering feed-back tone is added(to great effect). At just before the two minute mark the sample dies back, and we’re left with a thick wall which mixers together: rushing water texturing, pummelling swirls, and the most effective slightly pitch shifting feed back tone. As the track moves towards the five minute mark things shifting to a mixture of more billowing bass bound tonality, that’s battered & swayed by a active mixture of accelerating mid-range crackling sears 'n' bays. The rest of the track remains most active & effective with the violent mix of bass billowing, and shifting textural searing. In it it’s last few minutes the 'wall' builds into a complex interlocking mass of billowing, raging & rushing tones… it's most rewarding, that is until Ms Hough’s appears again!.
So to sum-up both tracks here are most effective(save for the Ms Hough’s elements!), and the label really has gone to town on the production of this box. I’d say this is another very worthy releases from Small Hours, which shows the project at the top of it’s textural game…I just wish they’d have dumped the Ms Hough’s song elements, but I guess that’s the theme/obsession of this release.