Whore’s Breath & Hana Haruna — Live Wires

Live Wires is a split bringing together two of the most consistent. compelling and creative  American walled noise projects. There’s Cincinnati, Ohio’s Whore’s Breath, and Portland, Oregon’s Hana Haruna. Each party serves up around twenty three minute track, and each is distinctive.

This is a digital release that appears on Portland’s Basement Corner Emissions. For cover art, we have a picture of what looks like very blurred red and white neon, or maybe vehicle lights. The release can be found just here. 

First up, we have Whore’s Breath, with a track entitled “...wouldn't know your ass from a hole in the ground”. Here is a wonderful taut and hypnotic blend of rapid juddering purr, constant chop ‘n’ fork, and some smaller-grained/nervous jittering sub-tone tension. Together, these elements blend to create such an urgent and attention-sticking ‘wall’- which almost has a groove, but most certainly has a suffocatingly brooding presence.

Next/ finally, we of course have the Hana Haruna track “Devil's Back 40”. This wall mixes a distant mid-range woosh ‘n’ gallop, a buzzing grain-like spin with a subtle hint of billow-bound ambience. There’s a nice feeling of both mystery and unease about this track, yet equally, there’s a searing/nervous undercurrent. As it goes on, the whole thing seems to become more spectral, seared/ blended - though of course this may just be a trick of the ‘wall’. Like much of this project work, the track sits somewhere between walled noise and ambience, and it’s another great example of the form.

Simply put, Live Wires is an excellent wall noise split. Both parties bring their A game to the tracks, and they nicely complement each other. Most certainly one of the early 2026 wall noise highlights.