Straight Panic & Dosis Letalis — Rooted In Slavery
The release appeared in 2019 on US noise/ dark ambient label Danvers State Recordings. The black shelled tape features grey brick wall labels on, and comes presented in a pro-printed double side monochrome sleeve. This takes in a picture of a figure looking out of a prison cell door, and inside we get grey/ black brick backing with white text on it. The release was ltd to 50 copies, and seemingly the label still has copies available for purchase.
The first side is the Straight Panic side- and I need to open up this sides review by saying I’m not the biggest of PE fans. I enjoy the scenes more creative & recognisable projects, but find much of the scene a little hit & miss- so with that in mind I’d say this side is passable. It takes in three tracks in all, and these each fall between three & seven minutes. We open up with “13th Amendment” here we find a mixture of ringing 'n' rumbling static tone wavering, which topped with a sample of a woman talking about the 13th amendment & the US prison system, with later an interview with an inmate been used. Next, we have “Industrial Plantation”- and this I’d say is the stand-out track, as we get an urgent blend of lashing texturing 'n' warbling high noise sweeps, and watery distorted vocals- making for a seared yet at the same time unease track. Lastly, we have “Liberty, Not Death” this again is another long dialogue sample-meets-choppy & wavering noise blend. The sample sounds like some sort of news report about prisons & fire-fighters- the tracks more annoying & dull with its sample use, which I’m guessing wasn’t what the artists was going for.
Flipping over to the second side, we of course have the Dosis Letalis- and this much more my thing. We get a single slice of agitated wall-matter entitled "Modern Day Slaves (Prison State)". It’s built around an unchanging flow of choppy & droning low-to-ranged noise, which is topped by a higher pitched even cluttering-to-reeling tone. The whole ‘wall’ has a great blend of blunt spluttering nastiness and serrated seared tension. The balance between the two elements is effectively blurred & hazed, meaning at points they start to blend & meld- normally this type of can be annoying in a ‘wall’- but here it works well creating a great feeling of rattling crudeness. It’s a pity it wasn’t twice this length, as I could easily enjoyed that too.
With splits that blend together different types of sound/ noise, it’s always a tricky proposition. I can certainly appreciate what Straight Panic is trying to do, but personally, their side felt a little unskilled & clichéd, aside from the 2nd track. On the other side/ hand, Dosis Letalis is a great slice of nasty & choppy walled noise, which once again shows the Serbian waller offering up great work. So in conculsion if you’re coming from a more even & balanced enjoyment of both PE & HNW, you may enjoy this split more than I did,