Where Is This — Infinite Uh

Irish based Where is this ( aka Mark Ward) likes to dabble and try different sounds and genres to mix-up something quite distinctive ( if a little haphazard at times). The projects first release “in the privacy of your own home” was a unhinging , yet original mixture of : retro synth sound tracking, Harsh noise, easy listening to industrial rhythms, and slight electroinca after traces. With this new release we have a sort of bastardised mixture of:shifting & textural altering HNW, stuck electroinca  with  whiff of atmospheric and stuck bombastic ‘n'  bassy noise texturing.

On offer here are three tracks that run between just under the ten minute mark to nearly the eleven minute mark a piece. The album starts out with “Infinite Ugh” which is built around a revving and slowly altering looped electro tone that builds into a this huge ‘wall’ of sound. As the track goes on the revving and electro churning sound seems to build and grow inside each other, and there’s an almost  clean industrial churn about the track.   After this we have “Infinite Um” which is built around a mixture of fast jittering & feasting tones that slide over an extending electro  like drone. As the track progressers Ward nicely slides  the drone  element into a more revolving deep whoosh , cuts it in and out or  sudden whips it- this managers to give the track both a very thick feel, yet at the same time quite lose and darting edge.

Finishing off the disk we have “infinite Uh” which starts out with a few seconds of very clear chopping electoinca synth pulses then promptly burials it’s self in raging and ringing tone wall of  electro sound that glides with this sleek sort of harmonic undercurrent. Like the rest of the album the tracks certainty a creative and a different take on the whole wall making genre, but  sadly I ultimately found the track rather flat and somehow too nice sounding for my tastes, and sadly this feeling popped up  a few times during the albums three tracks.

I can appreciate what Wards trying to do here with the album & I’m all for progression with in HNW, but somehow most of this doesn’t  get me at  gut level or  entrance me either- which are two big things for me when listening to HNW. The only nearly totally rewarding track in my eyes  is track number two “Infinite Um”; but even that seems to lack real spirit and focused rage.  So ultimately the albums an interesting experiment, and Ward is clearly very talented, but on the whole this does little or nothing for me.