Tissa Mawartyassari — Los Muerlos
The clear red shelled tape comes in a see through cassette case. This features a single sided sleeve, which takes in a side profile picture of women in corpse paint like make-up. The tape is now sadly sold out from the label, but you can still download the release at their bandcamp.
Los Muerlos is Spanish for The Dead, and each side of tape features a suitable ghoulish yet seared example of wall craft. Side ones track is entitled “Me Llama”( They Call Me). The ‘wall’ brings together a loose rolling noise drone, with a layer of chugging ‘n’ churning lower-to-mid range noise on top. For most of the tracks running time you get a fairly fixed blend of these key elements, and this creates both the feeling of seared-yet-sinister bleak-ness, and unflinching void out pouring. At around the nine minute mark the chugging ‘n’ churning elements seemingly get more rapid - with their more defined patter-nation disappearing here & there in sudden rushes. By around the 13th minute the chugging ‘n’ churning have become loser again, and at times it almost feels like this element could complete peter-out. And at the 14 minute mark we get quite a dramatic shift as both elements seem to suck into each other to creating a sustain tonal element. This lasts a few minutes before they reappear again, before sucking back once more- this happens a few more times, and with each occurrence the ‘wall’ seems to get slightly more rickety.
Moving onto side two & we have the track “Me Llevan” (They Are Taking Me). This track opens with a fading in blend of speeding static crackle, and deeper billowing ‘n’ buffeting. The whole thing feels windswept, eerier, and very foreboding- bringing to mind images of one being dragged along by lumbering undead figures, as a autumnal storm rages around your fear stilled body. By around the firth minute the speeding crackle has reduced & compacted- with the billowing taking up the main focus of the ‘wall’, though you still get sudden bands of sweeping static grit appearing ever so often. At around the 9th minute the billow has shifting to this tunnelled like feeling, and through this you get a selection of mixed tones- taking in slowed junk like reverberations, muffled buffeting, and sudden tight pinchers. This shift summons up images of you now being dragged down into the dead's underground world, though earthy & dusty tunnels…deeper & deeper. The remainder of the track skilful moves between the original deep billow meets crackle setting, and the tunnelled meets textural detail setting…before ending on a skittering blend of higher slicing & chalky hiss.
All in all this is a most effective release. With both ‘walls’ nicely linking into the theme of the release, to offer up bleakly seared yet atmospheric slices of wall-craft, which are both well tooled & balanced in both their creative elements & entrancing textures.