The Secret Geography — It Seems this too has come to an end
The Secret Geography is one of the few projects that Sean E. Matzus is involved in, and many of his other projects like Black Leather(with of course features Richard Ramirez’s and others) & Last Rape( just Richard Ramirez & Sean) are harsh noise or HNW based. But The Secret Geography is firmly in the drone genre, with maybe some slowed noise textures and uneasy drifting industrial edges here and there, it’s also a solo project too.
On offer here are two tracks that hit around the twenty minute mark each, and up first we have “So Much Left unspoken” which starts out with this grey 'n' growing semi-harmonic static purr/ drone that slow fills you listening space with melancholic machine like tone which sounds much like a snoring fridge to start with. As the track progresses Matzus slow builds other layers of tone around this first element like a doomed organ sustain, a throbbing and almost breathing yet sad harmonic drone and a few other semi tones- this all creates this rather wonderful yet deeply sad and at times almost alien sounding mesh of penetrating and hypnotic sound. One of the most breath taking moments happens here around the nine and a half minute mark when Matzus circles out this wonky and tone shifting synth pitch out of the drone wall- this element rather brought to my mind a melted ‘n’ greyly stickly version of the synth textures Striborg(Tasmania outsider Black metal project) users in his more ambient moments. The rest of the just under twenty minute track sees Matzus masterfully pull the listener in deep and deeper to the track, as he weaves more tones together into a grim and alien whole.
Up next and lastly is the twenty four minutes & seventeen seconds of “will I dream” which starts with this looped and distant bashed guitar harmonic tone which is fed over by this almost native American sounding wind instrument billow ‘n’ deep drone element; which over time becomes more loose ‘n’ muffled like a distant and often slowed down engine purr. By about the seven minute mark the original chiming and harmonic guitar tone has gone and the track moves towards into very slow motion almost industrial territory as a clunking ‘n’ looped churn is present beneath the billowing ‘n’ droning metallic purr. The rest of the track locks into this muffled ’n’ blurred semi-industrial drone vibe, but like the first track it has a very pained and melancholic machine feel to it all.
So “It Seems this too has come to an end” offers up two great, hypnotic yet different sounding slices of drone matter that are weaved with noise and industrial sentiments here and there. And like all the best drone records this mangers to be otherworldly yet emotional felt too, meaning there’s real human feeling and pain knitted into both of these tracks sonic makes-up. This release is sadly only ltd to 50 copies, and I’m not sure how many are left so I advise quick action- a must have item even if your only semi-interested in the drone genre.