Brandon Wald - Teuthis Galore - S/T
Not a new release from Black Ring, but a release nonetheless that I received with the post to review. It was released last summer, and offcourse... the cassette is offcourse sold out. It came out as 50 copies. Only one thing you can do, either purchase the digital version (Link below) or add it to your want list on your buyer's profile on Discogs, and then wait for someone to sell it. Apart from that, I love the cover artwork. It is always a good thing to see when power-electronics/noise acts try something else/new when it comes to the cover artwork. A circular framed picture showing someone wearing a priest collar, while having a piece of bone sticking out of the left eye socket. A very surreal and good illustration that u can look at while listening to whatever... is recorded on the tape. So let´s get on with it!. By the way, the A-side is with Brandon Wald and the B-side is with Teuthis Galore.
The first track on the A-side called Pull the Rope Tight starts with a quick heart-beat pulse thumping, echoed-whispering, and cold spoken words/vocals, creepy reverbed metallic scratchings with a cool and subtle background in the background. More of an industrial track than a power-electronics one. Great first track so far, reminds me a bit of Illusion of Safety.
The second track called Cell Black D moves a bit closer to the power-electronics sound while maintaining the industrial aesthetic. Sound pitched drilling noises and metal-scrap bangings. Sounds like a harsh wake-up call for the sleeping prisoner-inmates.
The third track I Am A Cop moves straight into old-school power electronics (Whitehouse, Sutcliffe Jugend, Slogun). High pitched distortion and brutal and heavily reverbed vocals. A minimal and atmospheric piece of direct brutalism. There is more depth to this than I can describe here kids. Lovely live-recording feel here.
The last and fourth track with Brandon Wald on the A-side is called Uniform Fetish. Think we might be dealing with power-hungry cops here! Starts with a rumbling sort of sound. The sort of sound u get when you put a mic inside a running washing machine... containing broken glass while someone is banging it at the same time! Aggressive soundscape with a harsh and chaotic approach.
We turn the tape to the B-side with Teuthis Galore. Only one and long track here (22:38), called Don´t You Want to Become a Cult Leader? The sound of a warped and scratchy vinyl player, bone narrowing distortions, sampled spoken words (Doctor/hospital something), and a hypnotizing sewer-like reverb noise in the background. Interesting sort of... clicking sounds going on as if someone is doing something close by. Industrial/ambient elements also being present as well. Halfway through a vacuum kind of sound sucks you in, drowns out the ambient elements. And then it dissolves into the sound of crispy bacon on a frying pan. At about 14:23, a kind of interesting and informative spoken word sample about being a cult leader goes on. It ends suddenly and dissolves into psychedelic aural noise. It throbs, it crawls, it jumps and vomits all the harsh noise obscenities at you until the very end.
And the album ends. A split mini-cassette album that offers industrial sounds, harsh noise chaos, bewitching ambient textures, and pure power electronics brutalism. Lovely diversity of different moods. Not a groundbreaking piece, but an honest and lovely split between two diverse artists.
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