The 8th House — Self Titled
The project takes its name from the astrological & tarot based sign/ card which means bad luck, ill health and death. The two tapes come in a long white vinyl box which features a cream art paper wraparound sheet that features death card drawing on the front and a line drawing of a scorpion on the back. Inside the box, and on the first side we another old line drawing illustrations of death standing in a doorway, and on the other side we have the two tapes which both feature pro cream paper labels that match the rest of the boxes packaging. There’s also two stickers featuring more old line drawings/ prints of death, & of course the projects name.
So onto the noise with-in….. Tape ones first side is an oppressive & mid-paced mixture of grainy ‘n’ coarse circular static texturing with a slightly buried 'n' muffled rumbling/judder drone. As the track progresses the pair subtle shift the layers of texture so it seems to get steadily more intense, thick, and grimly pressing in on you. Tape one side two finds is of a more slicing 'n' active mixture of textural like slashing and churning yet muffled machine like drones. The track brings to minding a erratically moving & aged conveyer belt that has a mass of thousands of slicing and grinding razor shape blades at the end of it- again the track seems to get more bleak, pressing and airless as it goes on.
Onto tape two and the first side starts out with scorching lo-fi juddering meets slightly knocking & grainy static textured loops. As the track progresses the judder moves more towards a gray and muffled synth like drone, with the static grainy ‘n’ knocking revolutions become more like autumnal rain on cracked perspex like. This track really does seem to pull you very deep into a gloomy & hopeless place with its deepening and grimly hypnotic descent, and I guess the main part of the track is best described as doomed HNW with some drifting ‘n’ murky ambient HNW tendencies.
The second side of tape two finds the pair mixing together two layers of fan belt like screech ‘n’ grinding with a muffled & slightly reverb soaked juddering drone. This track feels the most sharp and painful of the four tracks here, as it has a more grating and screeching tone drill running through it ever so often- but really the tracks still damn grim, oppressive and airless in it’s sonic unfold.
So all in all this one oppressive & grim ride in four twenty minute hits. It’s a HNW meets sludgy industrial drone trip that you not likely to forget in a while. Lets hope this pair work together in the future as they certainly manage to boil up a bleak, intense yet hypnotic sound thats really quite distinctive & nasty.