Unsignified Death — Poetic Catharsis/Abject Purification: Aesthetic Ex
Seemingly Unsignified Death began life at the start of 2019- put out in fairly rapid secession three digital releases- that take in stand-alone releases. And this CDR, and another CDR Collab on KV&GR/Recs. Behind the project is Bangkok based Polwach Beokhaimook-of various death/grind projects, and runner of Perpetual Abjection- the ltd art edition HNW label.
The CDR features a white paint spattered blackface- and this comes presented in a paper slip sleeve, with stuck on artwork- which to me looks like a crude pencil drawing of female hairy genitals. Inside the sleeve we get a double-sided monochrome inlay- on one side is a hand numbering(mines 4 of 15), and on the other side a lengthy quote from Dino Felluga – whose seemingly some American academic?!. The whole packaging has a very much underground noise label look- think stuff put out by Breaching Static or some of Deadline Recordings CDR releases.
The self-titled track comes in at dead on the thirty-minute mark- and it’s a decidedly murky & at times crude example of wall matter. The ‘wall’ brings together bluntly churning & muddily feasting static judders, with a selection of snapping & dragging junk metal like tones. The juddering element remains sluggishly in it’s flow, while the top layer of snaps & drags seem semi-looped, but also have a more random & at times jarring feel. The whole thing is not terribly defined, or in any way nuanced in its feel- but that does add a messy & blunt charm to proceedings.
The track rather brought to mind a looser version of the type of thing Ryne Barber did with his more industrial focused wall projects like Hearse Fetish or Lurid Hallway. Or the slacker & nasty takes on wall noise that Joseph Gates used to do with projects like Vargrwulf- so I guess you’d say it’s a fairly original take on HNW. On the whole, I thought the track was an interesting enough stab at walled noise, though at times it did become a little too muddled & messy for its own good.
It’s always great to see new acts appearing on the worldwide HNW scene- and with Poetic Catharsis/Abject Purification: Aesthetic Experience of the Abject Unsignified Death certainly shows promise. I look forward to hearing what they do next- I wanted to give this 2 & ½ mark, but as we only do whole points I’ve gone for a 3.