Where Is This/Clive Henry — Untitled / XV
Each artists offers up three tracks a piece- with Where Is This tracks falling between the six, and nearing ten minute mark. And Mr Henry’s tracks falling between the nine, and fifteen minute mark.
So first up we have three tracks from Irish project Where Is This- this has been active since 2009 releasing around thirty or so releases. Sound wise this project has covered a fair bit of sonic ground over it’s releases- moving through retro synth sound tracking, Harsh noise, easy listening to industrial rhythms, slight electronica after traces, noise/ drone crossbreeds, and HNW. The tracks on offer here are very much in the progressive/creative walled noise setting.
So the first of WIT track comes in the form of “Ficxsyer Uphurr”, and it’s built around this great, layered & cutting in ‘n’ out slice of wall-making. The track opens up with a mixture of dense mid-range noise texturing that keeps cutting in & out in a most effectively jerky manner, and under this are sudden sways of billow ‘n' wind whistling tonality. At around the two minute mark WIT adds in another layer of the really abrasive & chalk textured noise, and this element really makes you almost jump out of your seat when it first kicks in, and as the track progresses one gets a feel akin to having your ears & head been dragged along a slow ‘n’ flesh ripping sander. All told it’s a most effective & intense bit of cleverly layered walled noise, which just seems to get more manic & head grating the further it goes on.
The next WIT track is entitled “Mirror Neuron”, and this track has an almost muffled, warped, and very corrupted groove running through it’s walled-ness. The ‘wall’ is built around a mixture of rapid yet very dense weave of juddering, jittering & searing noise textures- these are fed into spiralling ‘n’ twisting mass of sound which seems bay & grate away at ones sonic sensors. Again this is another very satisfying & very intense bit of creative walled noise.
And lastly from WIT we have the track “That's It Then, Yeah?”. This track is built around rapid sheets of intense & searing drone textures, which are underfed by a selection of buffering storm elements, weird unrecognisable murmured ‘n’ buried voice elements, and sways of constricted then pummelling white hot industrial tinged noise making. In it’s last few mintues the whole track seems to suddenly be swept away in a hazing oceanic manner, but just before it’s final moments the intensity sides back in again. This track is a great piece of overwhelming & head fucking layer active walled noise.
Next we have the three tracks from Clive Henry- Clive has been active in the UK HNW/ANW scene since around 2010, putting out release that mix walled noise with field recordings, weird sound craft, & unsettling ambience. He often picks thought provoking & arty themes for his releases, and sonically ever thing he does meretricious worked out & executed. So far the project has put around 14 or 15 releases.
First up we have “4:27PM, 10th Of August, 2012”, and this track opens with a tightly textured mass churning ‘n’ juddering noise, which is underfed by locked pummelling/ jittering- to me it feels like your being endless pounded by waves upon waves of thick white & grey static, as if you are standing on a wild ‘n’ windy shore, being rapidly engulfed by first one wave after another. As the track progress ones mind starts to home in on this really tense ‘n’ taut almost groove like pummelling/ electro grinding element- this is edged by a crisp ‘n’ semi sputtering, yet focused drilling. Around the 11th minute the thick-ness suddenly cuts back to just a thinner sonic skin of crinkling ‘n’ crisp static haze, and by the 14th minute we have this rather chilling buried random banging ‘n’ smashing tones appearing. And for some reason these brought to mind strange & unexplained noise heard inside a dusty & cobweb weaved abandoned house; like the thinned skin of static texture is the cobwebs/ dust, and the banging & crashing is something rather unsettling a few rooms away- I know it’s an odd description /feeling but that’s what I get from it.
The second Mr Henry's track comes in the form of “3AM, 20th Of August, 2011”, and this starts off been built around a very dense & claustrophobic mixture of thick chalky & earthy grinding, which is centre with a endless downward roar & jittering /spiralling sub-tones. It really feels like your been taken on journey deep into rock & earth, and it almost makes you feel airless & oppressed by the weight of ground above you. Like the first track you start to make out more layer detail as the track progresses, and as it progresses Mr Henry effortless drills deeper & deeper into to more pressing, detailed, and hellishly dense wall-ness. And in it’s last few mintues it feels like you’ve come to ground in a massive churning & engulfing mix of landslide & lashing mud downpour, as the weighty 'n' wet textures batter at you.
Lastly we have “10:51PM, 10th Of August, 2012” from Mr Henry- and this track starts off a lot more stripped & lo-fi with a slowly building ‘n’ growing mass of jittering ‘n’ crinkling static haze, which is under fed by pressing yet wiry drill sustain. The whole thing feels like rapidly moving fog of static that is slowly but surely covering & engulfing you in it’s growing detail of crisp yet slowly battering winter-ness. Once again Clive very cleverly builds & layer up sonic detail, so as the track progresses you make out more and more textural layers. At around the six minute we get this rather unsettling & wavering mixture of vibe, whistle & pipe work weaving out this slow child like melody, which is just heard under the slow wintery veil of noise haze.
All told this is a very rewarding & cleverly conceived split from this pair of creative & progressive walled noise projects. As this has been out over a year or so now it might be difficult to source a copy of this, but it’s certainly well worth checking out as both parties here are on brilliant sonic form through-out the split.