Various HNW Artists — Ascolta Con Dolore

“Ascolta Con Dolore” (meaning “listen with pain” in english) is a four way split between four Italian based HNW projects. And as the release title suggest each track here is an very violent, very nasty yet often quite creative take on the walled noise genre.

This is the first release by new Italian based label Mediterranea which is brought to you by Alessio Mininel  of  stripped and often futuristic HNW projects TFT and Fragile. He also ran the TTM Incisioni Musicali  label which put out the first few TFT releases and concentrated more on the minimalistic and stripped take of the HNW genre. If this first release on the label is any indication of what to expect in the future, Alessio focus and tact has very much changed to more violent, denser, nasty and often multi-layered takes on the HNW genre.

The cdr comes in an oversized dvd case sized plastic bag, and it features a rather stark/ bleak white card sleeve with black tape around it’s two longer edges. Ihe sleeve features four small black and white pictures, with two on either side on the sleeve. Side Ones photos are of a dog baring it’s teeth ready to attack, and picture of a curled up naked female figure. And the other sides two pictures are of a pair of hands in surgical gloves filling up a syringe, and a female body laying on the ground cover up it’s ears- it all I guess has  quite an early and stark industrial feel about it’s package.

So onto violent sonic walls with-in….First up we have an untitled track from Mininel’s project Fragile, and it’s the shortest of the four tracks coming in at just over the ten minute mark. The track starts out with pained and slowly grating high pitched feed-back tones, as the track progresses Mininel mixers in clamouring 'n' hammering wall sustains inbetween the widening forks of the high pitched feed-back tones. And towards it’s end the 'wall'  doesn’t pause when the higher pitched forks come in, with the sound textures becoming more mixed.  I guess the ‘wall’ has quite a lo-fi and stark feel about it, it also has quite a rageing yet textural organised junk metal feel to it too. The tracks rewarding enough in it’s searing and hammering intent, and it’s damn nasty… but  I just rather miss the more locked and hypnotic type of walls Mininel was so good at in the past, but I guess everyone has to try new sounds and ways of 'walling'.

Second up we have an untitled track from Terminal Erection- which is of course the HNW project of long term Italian noise pervert Nicola Vinciguerra; whose projects go from  the sleazed and pained power electronics of Fecalove to unhinged, sinister yet slightly comic attack of experimental noise collective Splinter vs. Stalin. This track comes in at just over the twenty minute mark and is the longest on offer here. It all starts off with a minute or so of authoritarian like Italian male speaking over a whizzing static storm, then we drop down into the 'wall 'properly. The ‘walls’ built around purring ‘n’ churning thick static tone which has under it an alternating mixture of: slow monition yet angular electro texturing, weird mats of voice chatter, what could be melted radio jingles and all manner of just heard flotsam and jetsam which gives the track a very surreal sonic swampy feel. Yet  it’s still brutal and extremely nasty with the textured reels of barbwire like static wrapped tightly over the top of the other just heard elements. I’ll have to admit I was a little unsure of this projects early work, but the last few things I’ve heard Vinciguerra do really see him coming into his own with his very distinctive and layered take on 'wall- making', and this track is no exception.

 

Thirdly we have a track from Fukte which is of course the noise/ HNW  project of Veneto based Fabrizio De Bon who also runs the great and often creavtive hand made packages bound noise label Toxic Industries. This track comes in at just over the eighteen minute mark, and it’s a great searing and nerve-shredding slice of 'wall making'. The tracks built around this hissing and nasty central noise tone, which is edged by constant rippling static tone. Also running through the ‘wall’ are sudden yet brief higher pitched noise forks and brief industrial shoves ‘n’ drags. It’s a great track, managing to be both extremely nasty yet very Moorish too.

Lastly we have a fourteen minute track from Bologna based and  freaky bondage mask wearing project Indch Libertine.  And this ‘wall’ is a guess one of the more conventional and raging  ‘walls’ on offer here- it’s built around speedy, brutal, and ear-tearing selection of tightly weaved static judders ‘n’ caustic sweeps. It has quite a exhilarating yet very brutally feel to it, the 'wall' shifts just a few times in it’s near on fifteen minute ran, yet it nicely keeps it’s searing yet entrancing momentum through-out. It’s a great end to this collection of tracks.

So all in all “Ascolta Con Dolore” is a great looking and sounding collection of HNW  that celebrate the brutal yet distinct and creative talents of the Italian HNW scene.