Schloss Tegal - Black Static Transmission
One of the veterans of dark-ambient/industrial out with a classic re-issue. Black Static Transmission, was originally released by Cold Spring in 1999. Now remastered and released by Tegal Records, with a fantastic-looking artwork! The original cover was... (let's be honest) quite awful! This cool-looking glossy digipack really does its work, and the graphics represent the recordings way better. The album offers 6 tracks, almost 60 minutes long.
The first second the album starts, you are there. The first track Black Static Transmission starts in some underground and abandoned subway/bunker, right under a busy motorway. A huge dark place where it hums with layers of reverbed sound. In the distance, strange voices are talking. Chittering and haunting radio voices, the movement of old machinery, and... distant chanting voices. All the sounds swirl around the listener like ghosts. Although in the murky ambient section of electronic music, everything seems surprisingly vibrant and organic.
The second track Blind Fault Upheaval (R'Lyeh Rising) starts with someone talking about a great darkness, and beyond that darkness, a light glows. Then, the heavy machinery of atmospheric death-industrial starts. A looped and thumping heavy sound works as the bass, a layered high-pitched vibrating sound of drills all wrapped up in a lovely and harsh analog-driven soundscape.
The third track Toxified Systems Resistor is a really mystical piece. Telegram beeps, radio static, a floating UFO... and someone talking about the use of reality technology, and then someone mentioning the numbers.... 4....7....1. I can't help but think, that somewhere in some secret government they are using high-tech stuff to contact dead spirits (for some reason). The whole track is very relaxing and non-menacing but then again... there is the presence of a subtle creepiness...hiding. Interesting ear-opener for sure. Cosmic-horror ambient for sure.
The fourth track Necronaut travels further into the deep paranormal spaces. A long ambient track that makes time stand still, with a brilliant murky (and adventurous) soundscape with tons of interesting weird recordings/sounds. The soundscape works almost as a kind of huge wall, giving the listener the impression that something weird and indescribable is going on the other side of the wall. U can sort of hear it, but you can't see it. It´s like the sound/recording from a world between the living and the dead... beautiful!
The fifth track Terra Insanium (The Overbeast) continues with the number...4....7...1. The goal to get in contact with the dead continues, the phenomenon of EVP? Thinking back to John Carpenter´s horror flick The Prince of Darkness, about the mysterious video that was sent (as a dream) from the future that others could receive by dreaming! The track has that lovely low-tech grainy sort of quality to it but is still multi-layered in a high-tech quality. Lovely mixture of low-tech and high-tech here! At this point, I'm aware that I´ve been on an aural journey, and with this track, we´re getting closer to...that is beyond the darkness? I´m actually not sure if I should be afraid, or astounded?!
The sixth and last track Into the Quantaplex gives the answer to my former question. I should be afraid, sounds like hell being recorded through the radio. Eerie static, people screaming in hell, whispering, and more. Might just be the sample (from that recording from 2019) made by a person who lowered a microphone in a deep drill hole. Jim Jones is also here as well, and a lovely female singing loop. All is well in hell I guess?
Black Static Transmission is an honest, frightening, and disturbing album, without trying to sound evil or extreme. It works on a specific paranormal theme in a convincing serious matter, I'm quite sure that the intention wasn´t to frighten the listeners but to inspire and intrigue the listener instead, if u do end up being frightening well.... that´s just a bonus! The whole thing is a journey from the start to the end, the whole thing sticks together like glue in a really good way. Interesting to think that Schloss Tegal is one of the pioneers of the dark ambient genre, this act might just be TOO dark for the term!
