Various HNW Artists — A Vulgar Abstract
The four white cassettes each feature a single sided label, which takes in the ripped-up text design, that is repeated through-out the rest of the releases design. The four tapes come in a long & slim white vinyl box, and also featured is a 12 page monochrome booklet featuring each tracks details, a selection of ripped & torn porn, and more of the ripped text design. On the front cover with get a highly provocative picture of a female sucking something- all in all a sleazy & deliberately lo-if looking release. The set came in edition of 25 copies, and these are now sold out from the label- so if you want to get your hands on this you’ll either have to hunt discogs, or download the release from the labels band camp.
So moving onto the ‘walls’ with-in, and first up on side A we have a track from fairly recent German HNW project Sacred Climax- this project focus in on lo-fi, crude & dense HNW edged with pornographic samples. Their track is entitled “My God is in every Cock and their Cum is my Salvation”- as expected it both starts & finishers with a sample from a bizarre porn movie. And the suffocating & sleazy wall it’s self is made up of constantly tumbling & juddering textures- they run from lose & skin slapping paddles, onto grey static jitters, though to crisper shunts. And together they create a satisfying, though not particularly fresh sounding ‘wall’. I’d say it’s ok, but not as good as some of the work I’ve heard from this project.
Onto side B, and we have a track from Italian project Anonymous Masturbaudioum, and this is entitled “Deine Zarten Nylons In Meinem Gesicht”( translated to
Your Delicate Nylons In My Face). Over the last year or so this project has released some very interesting & layered ‘walled-noise’, and this track is another very reward example of this. The track opens with a long sustained hissing tone, but fairly soon this is sequences into a rewarding blend of constantly tumbling, juddering & snapping texturing- underneath this you get the sounds of subtle movement, weird half heard sounds, and later talking/ weird ‘n’ moaning dragging, etc. As the track progresses the ‘wall’ is masterful & subtle altered, first to a more a grind 'n' deep rumble, though to more spaced out maps of snapping ‘n’ tumbling, and beyond. Yet through-out the shifts the whole thing remains extremely dense, strangely intriguing, a little unnerving, yet highly rewarding. With out a doubt this track is one of the highlights of this set.
On side C we have a track from Denmark’s Prostitutes Of The 19th Century, and it’s entitled “ The Sail Of Human Flesh”. Seemingly this project is fairly new, though the mind behind it (Martin Schacke), has been active in a few different noise projects over the few years. This ‘wall’ is built around the following elements: A rapid(seemingly sped-up) galloping/ pummelling texture. A selection of spinning spoke like elements. On/off sways of forking yet buried/ uniformed noise screeches, a distant & loop gong harmonic, and possible a few other elements. The whole thing creates this amassed yet detailed cacophony that is a much walled noise, as it is dense & overriding sonic repetition. At times it almost sounds like I can make out either chiming church bells, piano plonks, and a really feeling of overloaded Victorian music hall…but that could just be my imagination & the subconscious suggestion from the projects name. Anyway it’s certainly a interesting track, and I’d like to hear more of this projects work.
On side D we have a track from Servant Girl Annihilator- which is one of the projects Texas based noise-maker Tanner Garza . The tracks entitled “Shoestring”, and it’s an example of fairly industrialized walled-noise. The ‘wall’ centred around this looped electro buzzing element, which is on top of this skidding, grinding, and roast mass of fairly similar toned mid range noise mass. The buzzing remains very fixed( and rather annoying) in it’s loop, while dense feasting backdrop has a few subtle shifts. On the whole I found the track rather underwhelming & tiresome- and to be honest plain nerve-grinding ( in a bad way). So this is certainly not my favourite moment here.
Side E present us with a track from French female wall-noise project Naughty, and their track is entitled “Ocular Ejaculation”. This ‘wall’ is a blend of the following elements: A lose rumbling though slightly knocking low-end, A selection of thinner/ smaller juddering, snapping, and crisping circling/ slicing textures. The low-end has quite an uneven/ wonky feeling about it and this really sucks you in, then the map of smaller textural elements pulls you deeper into the proceedings. This project is still fairly new on the scene, but Charlotte whose behind the project has been working in noise for a few years under other project names, and she really does have a great ear for creating rewarding, interesting, and worthy wall-craft. This is another highlight of this set.
Side F is taken up by a track from Oregon based project wall project Wet Dream Asphyxiation, and track is entitled “Some suffering”. It’s been a few years since I’ve heard anything from this project, but I’d always enjoyed what I’d heard in the past, so I’m happy to report this is another rewarding slice of brutal, dense, yet detail satisfy HNW. It’s built around the following elements: A stuck buzzing ‘n’ feasting fly like texture, A selection of deep snapping & jittering textures, and a few aquatic like knocking ’n’ dragging sub-tones. To my mind it brings to mind speed-up footage of a body rotting, decaying & breaking down- with the wall creates a highly ghoulish yet engrossing whole.
Side G’s track come in the shape of “No Pain No Gain”, from México based Human Toilet Vendors. This wall has brings together a constantly burrowing semi- harmonic drone, with these layers of slice, pelting, and searing noise texturing. I guess you’d say this is more active walled-noise, touching on dense harsh noise as there is a fair bit of movement in the layers here; at times it almost fully pulls away from wall-making. The tracks ok, but nothing mind-blowing, in summing up an average example of HNW/ dense harsh noise crossbreed.
Finishing off the box set on side H we have a track from Nacogdoches Texas based Female Paedophile. This track is entitled Desiree, and is a fairly un-complex/ simple example of searing void worshiping walled noise. It’s built around two layers: a constantly rolling yet distant noise drone, and a skittering/ feasting static noise web. These a run together to create a very stark & barren wall, which is just ok.
So in summing up the whole box set I’d say it’s very much of a mixed & vaired release- there really is some great work present here, though equally there’s stuff that’s very by numbers, or underwhelming.