Svartvit — Auto​-​da​-​Fé

Here’s a short, wee tape from Svartvit. Two sides, amounting to about twelve and a half minutes of harsh skree. The title references the 1935 novel by Elias Canetti, as well as the act of proclaiming judgement on those condemned by the Spanish Inquisition; this judgement would often result in public execution by burning and indeed, the inside of the pro-inlay has such a woodcut.

The first track, “Worthless”, opens with a blaze of noise; a very open wall, with no real crumble or crackle. Soon after this, a bass element emerges underneath and the rest of the piece sees this rhythmic low-end rising and falling in the mix. Essentially, “Worthless” is burn and churn, with moments of relief where something raises its head out of the skree. The rhythmic bass becomes more prominent near the end: a plodding, menacing, slow march; dragging trebly dirt in its wake. The piece plays out to a high-frequency spinning sound, ending in wash.

“Pseudo-solidarity” is the second track (and second side) and straight away its noticeable that its been created with a practically identical palette to “Worthless”. It has the same overloaded, saturating bass; as well as the very “open” squalls of treble. The piece is akin to a very, very active wall; but with nothing of too much textural interest. Some parts of the middle section are a little choppy, but not exactly cut-up. The impression is that underneath the wall of noise, interesting things are happening; but they are saturated into mush by the distortion, and smothered. There’s a loop buried in there somewhere and near the end of the piece it becomes more audible - but it never reveals itself fully.

This isn’t an overwhelming release, possibly not helped by the sense that the overall sound probably lends itself to lengthier outings. At points, the two pieces both sound like unfocussed noise, “open” walls; but when the rhythmic elements are foregrounded, a real force is attained. The slow march that closes “Worthless” is genuinely dark - it feels like the track should begin from this, sonically. This cassette is sold-out at source, but a visit to the Svartvit bandcamp will furnish you with a wealth of sounds.