A Closer Listen
You’d have to be absolute batshit crazy to release 19 drone and noise-based CD-Rs on the same day, much less Valentine’s Day, but this is exactly what Tampa’s Inner Demons Records has done. But flip the script and it makes a strange kind of sense; Ash Wednesday also falls on Valentine’s Day this year: the first day of Lent, when Christians remember Jesus being driven into the desert to wrestle with his own demons, inner and outer. These recordings, filled with a sense of real danger, make a much more suitable soundtrack than placid organ hymns. As evidence, spin the “first” of the nineteen by number, Fabio Keiner‘s Battle Hymn, which reimagines the hymn in a dark yet respectful manner, freed from political bandying, once again a diatribe against slavery and its insidious tendrils of racism. The struggle is apparent in the density, which lifts momentarily in “Let Us Die to Make All Free,” an opportunity for reflection. All too often the hymn is sung as if all foes have been vanquished, when the lyrics clearly state that they have not.
Noise Hangover (a possible nod to Diana Ross’ “Love Hangover”) is similarly dark and dense, The End of Everything growing in intensity as it progresses. If one thinks the ending of “No Future” is loud, wait until the title track arrives! Just imagine simultaneous feedback from every electronic device in the house, including electrical outlets and fuse boxes. This is some gorgeous noise, so much that we can’t possibly imagine a hangover; perhaps instead some tinnitus. With only one minute to go, the cacophony collapses into a single fading tone, but none are left to hear it.
Fencepost‘s The Atrocious Nursery is reminiscent of the classic Book Report Series from Wist Rec., with music inspired by the 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The story collects journal entries from a woman confined to the upper room of a mansion in hope that it will cure her depression. Her confinement has the opposite effect, as she begins to obsess over the peeling yellow wallpaper. Fencepost’s music chronicles the confined woman’s downfall, with saw-like sounds, knocking and keening and a decidedly haunted aura. While not the loudest of the Inner Demons batch, it is the most disturbing.
Two Inner Demon releases explore opposite angles of A.I. The first, The Deep Bleed‘s Machines That Search for God, is benign in tone, a reflection of humanity’s own S.E.T.I., which uses the down time of an international host of computers. The unanswered question: are the machines searching for God on their own, or have they been programmed to do so? Until midway into the title track, the drone is patient and placid, but it gains intensity as some invisible line is crossed: contact? John Watkins & Fall‘s Reflections of Art & A.I. includes “We Were Warned…” and “…And Now is Too Late,” the first conversational until the fuzzes and pops infringe on the guitar. The end is like a coming attraction for Part Two, which everyone knows will not be pretty. The whole thing seems to take place in a wind tunnel, whorling electronics eradicating any sign of human existence.
There’s a lot more worth discovering in this batch: a diatribe against political repression in Russia, a reimagining of the score to “The Fall of the House of Usher,” a pair of disturbing compositions to help disturbed people sleep, and an overall variety of dark timbres on 17 CD3″s and 2 CD5″s, at a ridiculously low price ~ only $1 each for the digital EPs. Is it enough to drive out inner demons? Perhaps for a night, and if so, that is enough. (Richard Allen)
Thu Feb 15 00:01:58 GMT 2024