On first listen to this Southern curated release, I was reminded of two particular phrases used on occasion by my mother. The first,’ Is it supposed to sound like that?’, would be used in relation to music I’ve played in her vicinity, when there is something that she doesn’t compute as recognizably musical. The second, the rhetorical,’ Isn’t it lovely when it stops?’. This second phrase might be used either in reference to the aforementioned noise which she has been stoically enduring or in the context of an unerring burglar alarm across the street which has been depleting her mental faculties for a seeming aeon.
For this collaboration is the blend of two less than household favourites; Low-end metalers, Porn and Japanese Noise purveyor, Merzbow. Impenetrable to most music lovers, the coalescence of sludgy guitar, bass and drums with what is essentially a lot of radio interference of varying frequency will largely only appeal to a select few hardcore metal enthusiasts and those that revel in musical abstraction.
This release is the first on new label ‘Truth Cult’ conceived under the banner of Southern.
Designed to produce tangible works of art in the truest sense, the idea is to unite tactile packaging with an emphasis on the relationship between the visual and the audible. The album comes in very limited brown vinyl and both LP and CD format come in gatefold with a poster insert. The Southern website proclaims of its new label, ‘The only common thread will be the uncommonness of our miscellany. The only criteria will be the desire to see what otherwise might remain obscured’.
This sounds heady stuff, but the fact that the artwork was created by sometime Hydra
Head and Southern Lord collaborator, Seldon Hunt suggests, along with the musical
content, a marketing strategy to align Southern with the aforementioned specialist labels.
As previously discussed, this is a release that to most should have remained obscured.
However even to an avid anti-Noiser, this album has its moments. Across forty
five minutes or so, the twelve tracks simply named one to twelve in Roman numerals
offer occasions where the two formats meet well, even pleasantly. My taste for the
Porn side of this experiment, yes I really have just typed those words, is helping the
Noise element grow on me. The broken beat rhythmical offering of ‘VI’ with its guttural
bass is something I’ve gone back to. There are hooks here and there, and as you listen
more attentively you can discern musicality within the noise and interplay with the
instruments behind it
This might actually work. I’m going back in…
Released 22/09/2008 on Truth Cult
