Twin Aperture — Ceremony
The black tape features day-glow orange labels- with the whole thing coming presented in a small baggie- this takes in double-sided abstract/ cut-up/ collage colour artwork. There’s no digital download/ Bandcamp version of this, so if you want to hear it- you’ll have to pick up the cassette.
According to discogs Twin Aperture started around 2018- it’s all the work of New York city-based Eric Anders Benson. Going from discogs listing the project has released twenty-one releases to its name- taking in stand-alone tapes, splits, box sets, CDRs and digital downloads. As far as I can recall this is the first release I’ve heard from this project.
As far as I can gather, each track here is untitled. The first track is a searing & churning mass of grainy purring sustain, roaring-yet-clipped flow, and crudely sweeping selection thinner & jagging juddering. These elements are brought together in a constant rush of sound that has a subdued industrial feel about it, but lacks little or any tonal definition or separate, so as a result, the whole thing comes off extremely monotone and at points bland in its attack. The whole 'wall' just feels very flat & one dimensional- meaning you don’t get any neat imagined or real shifts in the ‘walls’ sound- instead you just get a blunt rush.
Flipping over & we once more having a decidedly rushing & blunt ‘wall’- it brings together a murky & rolling churn, thinner rattling sweeps, and distant/ shadowy rumble. This track was a little more appealing, as the churn & distant rumble have quite an effective hazed & muffled industrial sweep about them- so this certainly pulls you in a little more than the first side. Though sadly it doesn’t keep its appeal/ pull for it's full length- meaning I start to switch off around the halfway mark.
I guess how much you enjoy this C20 is down to what you want from an HNW release. If you're looking for dense yet often blunt & muffled weight of noise, that's just rushing over you & blocks everything out- then I can see this appealing to a certain extent. But if you after something more balanced & nuanced in its layers, which utilizes engrossing & detailed textures- this most certainly won’t be for you….and sadly I largely sitting in the second camp. Sure I enjoy dense & rush noise making- but there has to be something hook me in, be it an addictive or distinctive texture, or suitable ear grind bass presence- sadly Ceremony lacks either of these qualities.