Stoned To Death — The Sky Opens
This CDR comes in a simple yet effective enough white paper slip sleeve that features on it’s cover what looks like a white canvas with a dark blob of paint taking over most of one side of the picture. The back cover features minimal detail; taking in the releases title, track titles, Breaching Static's web address, and the release catalogue number.
The release offers up two 17 to near on 18 minute track, and I guess both tracks can be described as subtle & thin static texturing or static detailed ANW, with the deep drone undercurrets .
First up we have “ How To open Heaven”, this 17.11 track starts off with a repetitive one layer loop of old vinyl like crackle, fairly soon this seems to double in it’s textural mass/ thickness, and adds in a more skip tonality- this creates a nicely enclosing yet still relatively thin sounding ‘wall’. Just before the 5th minute a rumbling textured drone starts to grow & build behind the consistent static crackle ‘n’ skip- I guess it sounds like a mixture between distant thunder & subterranean like rumble. As the rumble seems to get close & close the static seems to get more agitated at first, then it seems to start to slow/ spread out, but of course the two tones are maybe just standing still, and it's my mind playing tricks with me- which ever it is the crackle ‘n’ drone elements do make interesting counter parts, & they work well together to create this eerier yet taut vibe. By just before the 13th minute the crackle fades out leaving just the drone, which now sounds a bit like a recording of movement from with-in a womb- this soothing through eerier drone seems to slow by fade out over the rest of the track length.
Track Number two is entitled “How To Delete Heaven”, and this is the slightly longer of the two at the 17.51 mark. This track starts out with a very thin yet slightly glitch ribbed line of static, but with-in less than a minute a deep aquatic sounding rumble has suddenly appeared underneath the thin static line of tone. Over the next five or so minutes these two elements run together with only the thin line of static altering slightly with the odd glitch or buzzing added into it’s path. At just before the 6th minute mark the rumble seems to dip down a pitch or two, as if your falling deeper into some under sea trench. The line of static still remains fairly sparse, through it does seem a little bit more jitter ‘n’ buzz about it, and it also seems to start become a bit more urgent in it’s feel. The drone cuts out altogether at around the 15 minute mark leaving just the line of now fairly detailed static to exit the track alone.
“The Sky Opens” offers up two effective & well controlled slices of static texturing meets ANW drone/ rumble matter. All told it’s a well executed release, and is well worth a look if you enjoy ANW.