Vomir / Ptomain — Split
On side one we have the ‘Untitled’ Vomir track which comes in at just over the nineteen minute mark & it finds the Frenchman boiling up rather a brutal, crass yet hyptoic wall; which does feature a few subtle layer movements along the way. The track kicks-in with a fast & rushing stream of crude & thick wall making that sounds like an amp-up recording of a steel sewage pipe thats rich with the constant filling & rushing of liquid & faeces matter. The ‘walls’ made of a rapid rushing & juddering tone, with a deeper & lower static rumble in the background, Vomir forces these two elements together in a crass yet hypotonic manner. There seems more movement & slight textured shifting between these two elements which you wouldn’t usually expect from Vomir & his normal unchanged & unmoving stance, but it’s all only very slight, so Vomir certainly hasn’t sold-out on us by any means.
As the track progresses the rushing tone becomes more hammering rain like and the lower tone shows more of a purring engine type tendencies.Though the real surprise happens in the last few minutes of the track as it morphs into a rather tight & memorable wall of looped judder and jitter. With an off pattern static wraped bicycle spoke like tone rising up from the wall as the track exists at the just over nineteen minute mark. So in summing-up the tracks another very effective & gruelling excise in 'wall making' from one of the modern masters of the form. And it shows some surprising textural shifts that are rewarding, yet don’t take away from the brutally & engulfing feel of the track.
Onto side two and we have of course the ‘Untitled’ Ptomain track. This sides ‘wall’ starts off sounding like a ripping ‘n’ tearing storm with roaring wind & lashing heavy rain tones abound. The whole track has a very slight judder running through it’s heart which at times really gives the feeling that it’s ripping around your ears & head like a real storm. By the eight minute mark the track seems to becoming more controlled & pattern based with almost harmonic edges appearing in it’s juddering undercurrents, yet it still very much keeps it’s massive & destructive focus. As the track comes into it’s last few minutes it nicely alternates between the organised & almost harmonic walled noise patterns and the rain hammering & storm tonalities. The track dips out at just under the seventeen minute mark. This is my first taster of Ptomain work and I must say I’m very impressed with this track & the way the roaring storming chaos of the piece is controlled & focused into a highly enjoyable slice of ‘wall making’.
The 12inch vinyl comes in a fitting plain black sleve with a double sided A4 mini poster of an two enlarged photo both pictures of a person with their main face cut-out. This fit’s the split's tone perfectly & HNW ethos in general that society has becoming faceless & stayed. These pictures also have a nice creepy sociopath undertones which again is highly fitting too. All told a very nasty, but rewarding & often hypnotic split from these two HNW acts.