Baah & Jaw Surgery - S/T
Split released last year (2025) on cassette via Marbre Negre. Two projects: one called Baah and the other called Jaw Surgery. Baah hails from Malaysia, and Jaw Surgery hails from the Philippines. Baah works in the field of immersive soundscapes, drones, and ritualistic noise. Jaw Surgery offers psychotic soundscapes using vocals, distortion, delay, and feedback. The two have then gotten together to make this split.
Bahh on side A with 3 tracks, and Jaw Surgery on side B with 4 tracks. 38 minutes in total. Nice exotic-looking artwork with Asian gods or demons. If there is a focused theme on this release, I am sure to find it while listening (and checking the names of the tracks on the album).
The first track by Baah is called Moist Gullet. A heavy and rhythmic death-industrial, chopped, and thumping sound. Nails on rusty metal springs, scraping knives on sheets of metal. Very factory-kind of sound; reminds me of the German act called Flutwacht. There's also a hint of chanting vocals in there. Warped synths sounding like a rusty bonesaw, slicing and dicing through a blackened ambient soundscape.
The second track, Purity Mucus. Harsh ambient-driven mechanics and digitalized cut-up sounds from a glitchy computer in an icy-cold morgue. Moody, immersive, and lots of nice layers being perfectley mixed together. Has a very organic sound to it, a living, breathing recording altogether.
The third (and last track) by Baah is called Apocalypse Sputum. Moving closer to a mix between dark ambient and harsh noise. Moaning vocals of the dead and the sound of the restless spirits swirl around. Lots of punishing and sharp knob-twiddling here. Digital looped haywire makes it sound like an android version of Rubber Johnny. If the listener felt relaxed with the former tracks, they're sure to be woken up now.
We swap the tape to the B-side with Jaw Surgery. Mist of Carnal Neurosis wakes the listener to a grinding, painful-sounding, and moody harsh noise treatment. Crunchy and nightmarishly spatial. Screams from the operating table, or shrieks from beyond? Very intense material, up there with Information Overload Unit by SPK.
The second track, Traitorous Orchard of Demise. Crunchy and heavy, slow-driven, looped, and battered machine rhythms. Sound of gas escaping through small plastic tubes. Female spoken words, something about... straightjackets.
The third track: Cavity of Blood, Marrow and Light. A burst/sound of flames from an iron foundry, high, distorted, and sharp sound raising the tension just a big higher. Classic harsh noise.
The fourth (and last) track is called Anti-sun Vortex Of The Nephilim. Sputtering machine-noise and moody, ritualistic distorted growls. Torturous expansion of pain and sound. It slowly fades out, then ends. Gulp... What a trip!
Two very different harsh acts with a moody approach to post-mortem themes. The first act is a bit more ambient-abstract, while the second act is more harsh-noise direct. Kind of like two sides of the same coin. Excellent mood-killer for some, mood-booster for others.
