Wallmart, The Ide Of  Earth,Social Role — Split

Here’s a three-way wall noise split- bringing together three US projects.  It takes in Massachusetts-based Wallmart, Phoenix’s The Ide Of  Earth, and Richmond’s Social Role Theory. Each project offers up its own track, and then the three collaborate on one track.

The split appears on Illinois Oxidation Records- coming as either a Ltd to twenty copies tape, or( I believe) unlimited CDR. I’m reviewing later- it’s a pro printed CDR, coming in a glossy card slip- which takes in green, blue, and white colourings- on the front cover we get what looks like a silhouette demonic clown holding something circular- just seen through an underwater-like haze. The album can be found just here 

We open up with Wallmart’s “ADCA”- the track rolls in at just over the fifteen and a half minute mark. It’s a densely weaved yet decidedly waywardly shifting sounding ‘wall ’-which brings together a tight rolling  'n' purring low end, rattling mids, and swaying buffering. At points, I’m hearing this weird mumbling/ buzzing voice element, but as it’s so tightly layered/ mixed closely together, you can seemingly never fully define any of the patterns on display. It finishes in a nice jarring hiss, before we get a snippet of a news report about a store shutting down. This is a nice, all-engulfing/ at times rewardingly disorienting open to the release.

Next is The Ide Of Earth’s track “Plastiglomerates”  which runs at dead on the twenty-minute mark. It’s a rewardingly messy ‘wall’ based around a blend on/off spluttering/ purring bass tones, juddering grain chop, and differently pitched swishes ‘n’ swirls.  It sounds like several shorting in ‘n’ out food mixes having a fight- at points, you think it may all completely fall apart, but it never does. I’d say this is my favourite of the tracks on here, as the textures are all really nasty-yet-engaging, and I like the erratic/ messed up quality of the whole thing.

Next is Social Role Theory “Acidified Oceans”, which comes in at just over the ten-minute mark. Here we find a rather loose-yet-rapid ‘wall’ based around a mix of constantly rolling ‘n’ popping grain patter nation, looped swirl ‘n’ shift, and constantly glitching pop tone. I enjoyed the mix of weathered tension about this track & taut-if-at points erratic glitching.

Finally, we have the three-way collaboration track “Layers”. This is an extremely thick, but subtly sliding ‘n’ shifting ‘wall’ based around a blend of bass buzz, swirling drift, clamouring purr ‘n’ drill. It’s a nicely overwhelming & numbing the world around you example of the ‘wall’ form. The whole thing starts to nicely pull itself apart towards the end of proceedings.

So, this is a rewarding ‘wall’ split/ collaborative release, with each party bringing some decent textures into play. And it’s always nice to see a physical release in a world where most of the scenes wears are now released digitally.