Smrznik/Ïîòåðÿííàÿ Ãîðëà / TFT — Makhine
As with anything put out on the excellent TTM Incisioni Musicali(which is run by Alessio of TFT) label there’s a very sleek & classy look to the packaging with none of the Giallo, horror & blood splattered imagery used in many HNW releases present here. Instead you get an oversized colour sleeve which is mainly covered by a stern, cold & sci-fi like grey metallic grid pattern with the albums name, credits ect put in small text at the base of either side of the packaging.
Up first we have Smrznik- this is the project of Sarajevo based Neven Sebastian Crnich who also co-runs the splendid & quality bound HNW label Zvukovina. The track’s called 'Leden Dah' meaning in English Ice Breath which is extremely apt as this track ‘wall’ is built around a looped & relatively sparse but hypnotic freezer like purr ‘n’ drilling tone. The track really gives you the feeling of being slowly, but surely frozen in a vast chugging cold room. The track comes in just over the half an hour; but it seems to zoom by much faster as Crnich has built such an appealing & trance inducing chilling machine purr and throb here.
Next up we have two tracks from Ïîòåðÿííàÿ Ãîðëà who’s name translation to Lost Necks in English. This project once more features Neven Sebastian Crnich along with Russian based Alexander Kibanov(Earth Incubator, Headless Kamikaze, solo & many other projects). The two tracks here were original released only a net only release(that’s now no longer available)- the first track comes in at the six minute thirty second mark & finds the pair offering up a mid-pace circling ‘wall’ of machine tone. It takes in :seared metallic whips, cold drilling drones, controlled air hose hissing and low down rumbles; the track keeps a fairly consistent and looped pace though-out, but it's once more quite hypnotic in it’s sonic grain. The other Ïîòåðÿííàÿ Ãîðëà track is the shortest of all of the tracks here & finds the pair amp-up the pace a little with a ‘wall’ built around shoving air hissings & distant chain rustles, looped bass boils & repetaive industrial tone loops. With-in the guts of the track there’s a see-awing & slightly harmonic feedback rise & fall which keeps the track very captivating. It’s just a pity it couldn’t have lasted a little longer that just over the three minute mark.
Lastly we have the TFT track which is entitled ‘UHT’ and this comes in at exactly the twenty five minute mark. This ‘wall’ is built around a repetitive fast & sleek electro like trapped hiss, cold static & controlled air-con like dwells and thickened ‘wall’ tendencies. The track feels like your getting pulled deeper & deeper into modern technologies hope feasting heart; making one feel like a character from David Cronberg's Videodrom that’s getting slowly sucked into a TV’s screen of solid static snow. This is certainly the most nasty, drilling & unforgiving track here, yet it’s still somehow keeps a cold techno beauty to it all.
Another great & well thought out release from this still relatively new Italian label which is building a very distinctive & sleek name for it’s self in the seemingly daily growing HNW scene.