Unwashed — Rats Clinging To A Ship
Rats Clinging To A Ship is the debut release from Unwashed- the more Power electronics focused project of Southampton based Clive Henry, who in recent years has been known/respected for he’s often more progressive take on HNW/ static noise making. The release appeared in November of last year, and came in the form of either a C30 tape or a digital download- and as of this review the label still has copies.
The white-shelled cassette features a minimal white text on black background label on one side of tape. This comes in an effective grim looking sleeve that takes Anarcho-punk/ Crass like collages of The House Of Commons, police with batons, chavs in hoodies, prison fences, ect- the cover is printed on tracing paper stock, with a thin sheet of green paper. All in all, this is a neat looking release, but really you can say that for pretty much everything put out by German noise/ experimental label Geraeuschmanufaktur.
The release takes in eight tracks, and these each have a runtime between three & seven minutes. The tracks seem to be fairly evenly split between more traditional & angered PE fare- that brings together Henry’s overloaded & pained vocals with stabbing ‘n’ prodding electro noise elements. And slightly more moody & pared back electronica fed PE tracks, which blend together either samples/ looped texts with a bleakly atmospheric backing. On the whole, the release passes by in a worthy enough manner, and kept my attention through-out- you see I’m not the biggest fan of the wider PE genre, but I’m a big fan of Mr. Henry’s wall-work.
Some of my favorite moments here come in the form of the opener “Clean Hands”- this begins with a searing swamp of swirling, slicing, and beaded noise. As the track continues a more broodingly harmonic buzzing element rises, and this is joined by chunking junk noise elements- at around the 4th minute we get pared back for a seared-yet eerier blend of robot slashing voice samples, pitter-pattering electro elements, and Mr. Henry shouting ‘all fucking mouth’. “Hail The New Serf” brings together a slurred & creepy synth/organ melody, sweeping & sour high pitched noise tones, and a sample of UK prime Minster Theresa May speech- with later the words ‘to get on with things without complaint’ been looped in a most effectively chilling manner.
It’s always great to hear new work from Mr. Henry as he’s one of the more creative/ thought-provoking artists working in the noise scene today. And while, as mentioned early, I’m not the biggest PE fan, there is enough of both Mr. Henry’s creativity & flare present here to bring this above your standard PE fare. So I'm looking forward to hearing more release from Unwashed in the future, and as debut go this is an effective & worthy opening shot