Striations — Collection 2
This CD release appeared last year on Phage Tapes, and as far as I can gather it’s a large/unlimited release. The disc is presented in a clear jewel case- this features on its front cover a colour collage made out of bloody body parts, cadavers, ripped and torn automobile parts. Inside we get more black & collage work, as well as cut-up texts, and of course the original release details.
The Striations project started back in 2010 and is all the work of Oakland based Mike Finklea. So far it’s put out around thirty-five releases in all, taking in stand-alone releases, splits, and shorts. I first became aware of the project with Vietnamization- a 2019 double CD release on Old Captain/ Eibon Records, which stood as one of the more engrossing, meaningful and creative noise releases I’d heard in some time. It blended elements of moody noise-scaping, harsh noise, and PE, with keen & cleverly use of news footage/samples regarding the Vietnam war- focusing on how the US army both brutalized, maimed & destroyed both the landscape, the counties people, and their own soldiers. With Collection 2 we once again have a connecting theme, and that’s car & aeroplane crashes, with a focus on the former.
The two releases featured here are Trauma Code 2- this originally appeared in January 2020, as a C60 on Gutter Bloat. And Pleasure Is Only An Illusion- which was a 2013 split between Striations & US noise Legend Richard Richard Ramirez. And there’s also a six-minute unreleased track that nicely fits in with the other tracks- all to give a highly skilled and sonically varied twenty track/ seventy six-minute release, that works well as consistent release- which is not something you can normally say for a compilation release like this.
As mentioned above it’s a highly consistent & worthy release through-out, and I enjoy pretty much like everything here. But to give you an idea of what to expect/ a few of my present favourite moments. There’s the buzzing ‘n’ grinding-meets-moodily forking junk metal bay & smash of “Flesh, Metal And Glass”. We have the highly unsettling “Dead On Arrival” which brings together brooding drone hovers & atmospheric pitch sweeps with a dialogue sample of a woman talking about an organ slicing car accident. There’s the harrowing-to-searing “Unsafe At Any Speed”, which moves from a lengthy spoken-word sample of a man talking about the dangerous elements of a 1950 Buick, onto a sinister-yet-seared blend of buzzing ‘n’ bouncing noise matter, atmospheric high pitch sweeps, and uneasy noise texturing. We have the troubling crash and grind of “Heartbeat Of America”- which opens with a warped sample of an upbeat car advert jingle, before driving into a tight & ear melt weave of high pitch sear, forking bay, and griding mid’s/lows.
Collection 2 is another great example of how talented and creative Finklea is as a noise-maker. If you enjoy noise that cleverly shifts through the forms sub-genres, and is often highly troubling/moody- you’ll be needing to pick up this CD double-quick!. Head here to score a copy directly