The Ebony Tower — 1Q84

Here’s a six disc CDR set that offers up six hours worth of dense, punishing  yet often texturally detailed walled noise from this Greeley Colorado project. As with pretty much everything put out by this project the set is themed around works of literature, and this time the focus is 1Q84- which is a series of three interconnecting novels written by highly respected  Japanese Magic realism/ modern surrealist author Haruki Murakami.

The books that this release are based around appeared between May 2009 & April 2010, and these are set in a fictionalized  version  Toyko in the year of 1984. In the books reality the world has two moons, &  the 1300 page plot follows the fates of two people- fitness instructor Aomame and maths teacher and struggling novelist Tengo. As you’d expect with Altar Of Waste the packaging is well thought-out & colourful, with set presented in three clear DVD cases( two discs in each)- with each case featuring double sided cover taking in artwork related to books plot.

First up on disc one  we have “Green Peas”, and this opens with a particular searing & hellishly dense mix of the following elements: A blunt, rapid yet muffled & persistent galloping.  A Seared & smarting hissing mass of blanketing noise sheen, and an on/off buzzing billowing. As the track progresses we get very slight shifts in the ‘walls’ layers, for example at around the twenty minute mark the gallop seems to become more juddering like in it’s intense low end clamouring,  & also at this time the buzzing billow seems more prevalent too- but none of these (mostly) subtle shifts really change the tonal or textural range of the ‘wall’ drastically. And from what I’ve read of other people reviews of  1Q84( I’ve not read the books myself), this ties in nicely with the apparent repetition of the books structure.

Disc two features the track “Air Chrysalis”, and it’s ‘wall’ is built around the following two key elements: a deep & rapid continual rolling roar, and a shaking ‘n’ swirling crisp static pattern. These two textures are set into a thick & roasting mass, which has quite a hypnotic pull to it- as your mind follows first one texture & then the other.  As the track progresses we once again get very subtle shifts & moves with-in the thick sonic mass, and these take in sweeps of crisper jitters, deeper noise roars, and scrubbing swirls, and some slight slowing of pace.  Like the first track these shifts don’t really alter the impermeable thick-ness of it all, and on the surface everything feels set & firm, but as you  play the track more & more you do start to pick out the  micro shifts.

Onto disc three & we have “The Little People”. This track is centred around a rapid & condensed low-end judder, which is covered by a speedily spurting air bubble like reputation. Ever so often a hump like mound of sustained buzzing tone appears in the raging & rolling flow of the ‘wall’, and this has quite a jarring yet brutally playful feel to it. As with the previously two tracks this is a very dense & intense affair, though there is quite a nice feeling of separation between the two main layers, meaning that you can more clearly make-out the subtle layer shifts of the ‘wall’. I’d say this track stands as one of my favourite moments here, as both textures are appealing & fairly original sounding, and the way the whole thing flows really mangers to keep your attention fully held through-out its full runtime.

Onto disc four we have the track “Isolation”& this searing yet stark track totally fits its title. The ‘wall’ is centred around two or three layers of billowing,  roasting & tightly rattling  noise- the elements sit between the lower to mid range, & these fall in a fairly narrow range. The ‘wall’ creates a very windswept yet intense wall, which is possible a bit more simple in it’s make up compared to the previous three ‘walls’, but it ups the anti on  the head roasting intensity. Most of the tracks running time sees a rather fixed affair, though in the last twenty minutes or so we get added in a extra thick spraying layer added in, and the whole thing feels like it’s also slowing down & blurring together  too.

Moving onto disc five, and we have “Two Moons”. This track brings together a taut & tight spinning low-end billowing, with a locked down machine like juddering ‘n’ churn.  As the track progresses the billowing seems to get more blurred, while the judder & churn gets more rapid, skittering & static grazed- yet once again these shifts don’t really alter  the focus or the bothersome thick-ness of the ‘wall’.  Around the mid way point both elements seem to get more & more blurred & seared in their feel, and this creates a very rapid yet deeply muffled maelstrom of noise.

Lastly on disc six we have  the track “Unity”, and it’s another seared & thickly punishing affair. The ‘wall’ consists of  a locked down whipping ‘n’ swirling wind like texture- this is underpinned by a muffled low-end grind, and a dense weave of locked jittering static. The whole thing feels like you are  stuck in the centre of a set spiralling hurricane- which is battering  both your ears & body. As the track progresses it seems that each of the elements are speeding up slightly, but I suspect in reality the ‘wall’ is very much fixed & firm. Apart from some possible layer shifts in the latter part of the track the whole thing seems one of the more unmoving tracks here, but that doesn’t not make it appealing. On the whole the track both entrancing & brutally exhilarating in it’s focused state.

On the whole this is another worthy selection of lengthy &  dense wall craft from The Ebony Tower, and a few of the tracks here feature fairly creative texturally make-ups too. Added to this there’s also  the  great & colourful packaging from Altar Of Waste- sadly this is now out of with the label, so you’ll have to do a little searching on the discogs.