Tallow Glee — Campfire Thrillers

This tape from Crystal Lake Tapes arrives in a very stark, almost xeroxed, black and white inlay. It contains three tracks, essentially all harsh noise walls, amounting to about half an hour; with each named after a campfire story (or rather I presume they are - I recognise one of the titles from a Tiny Tim story-piece, “The Viper”). The inlay is notably spartan and mysterious, with precious little information to offer beyond titles and artist.

The first track, “The Hunter”, begins with a sampled introduction; a narrator beginning to tell a campfire story, over a bed of (overly-dramatic!) night-time noises. As the narrator pauses, before starting his tale proper, the first wall thunders in. A strong, rampaging wall, that hits the ground at an furious pace. The track is dominated by the bass elements, which drive forward like a rumbling juggernaut; churning up crackle in their path. Over this, a slighter - almost wispy - stuttering, treble scuff tries to keep pace. As “The Hunter” progresses, this scuffing coalesces more with the lower elements to produce a truly scathing, frenzied wall. The second piece,  “The Viper”, is not a wall in the traditional sense; but however you wish to categorise it, its a truly abrasive work. It begins with a metallic ringing, akin to an alarm, in one speaker; whilst the other contains a stuttering, crackling drone. Over time, these spread across the stereo-field and combine to create textures that demand a lot of wind metaphors: the whole piece centres around a mid-frequency “windy” tone, whilst around it whistle squalls of near-feedback. Its a stinger on headphones. The track ends with a definite metallic ring, raising interesting questions about its creation.
 
Turning the tape over, we have the last track, “The Sisters Sweet”. This is another example of idiosyncratic wall-making. The piece begins as a strong, but curiously “empty”, wall; its really more a drone with some crackle around the edges. The drone is reverberant and pulsing, whilst the crackle is near washy treble. As the piece continues, the crackle and reverberations grow, building into a wall of punishing saturation and stress; before again dropping down in intensity, with the drone returning to prominence. Throughout the peak and climbdown, there’s a sense of disorientation; as the wall lurches and wobbles a little. This all adds to the feeling of “weightlessness” that the drone initially promoted. 
 
This is, without being patronising, a really good tape. To be honest, I had few expectations of “Campfire Thrillers”, given the lack of bells and whistles and the slightly “silly” theme of the tape. However, its a very sly release, stealthily good. The three tracks are all excellently constructed and also imaginative and “different” in terms of HNW. A great release!