Ghoul Detail – Medicated : Noise/power noise/industrial/dark ambient

Reviewed by Gird_09

I admit both the name of the band and the cover of the album puts me off a great deal. It makes me think of an Insane Clown Posse clone, and considering how fucking awful the original is, well... Luckily my prejudice is just that, and nothing more. The music is a blend of noise, industrial and drone with deep and dark roots.

The machine like sonic landscapes on the album are easily hypnotic, and I find my thoughts drifting. In many ways the music reminds me of projects like Imminent (Imminent Starvation) and Converter but with a softer sensibility. That is the range of sounds is much the same, but the content and presentation is quite different, and much more ambient.

The result is a piece of atmospheric rust, and I like that. The crystal clear production values makes the music effective in conveying a feeling of scattered debris and battered junk, everything illuminated by an unhealthy glow. The music is certainly something you should listen to in a dark room, and alone. It's not an album you pop in the player during a date.

There are drawbacks too. As with many other albums in this landscape it's too bloody long. It gets boring after about fifty minutes, and very few albums have much staying power beyond that point. Music of this sort is solitary mood music, and staying focussed for that long is hard – unless you're distracted by other activities and just not doing the music proper justice.

My favorite track on the album is Pathfinder. It stands out against the backdrop and works really well as a slightly up tempo track. The beats are also a great contrast to the bubbly electronic bog of moist darkness in the track. A very good track, on a very good album.

2010, Dark Meadow Recordings, CD album,

http://www.myspace.com/ghouldetail
http://www.darkmeadowrecordings.com

1 Intro [1:18]
2 Black spoon rising [6:57]
3 Psittacosis [6:23]
4 Valium Sanctuary [8:37]
5 Pathfinder [8:21]
6 Scabies [7:37]
7 City of the Living Dead [8:54]
8 Interferon [7:08]
9 Sceptic Spectre [8:18]
10 Medicate my way to enlightenment [7:28]

Absence insolution – I've not forgotten : IDM / Electronic Experimental / Noise / Powernoise

Reviewed by Gird_09

The first track of this download covers more or less the entire spectrum, from ambient, to electronic beats and then further on to powernoise and pure noise mayhem. The impressive bit is how natural it all feels. The blend of powernoise beats and harsh electronic distortion is powerful and reminds me a bit of Merzbow's Aqua Necromancer, just more harsh. The track even manages to segue into a moody industrial "ambient" melodic part before it ends after a little more than twenty minutes of unpredictable beauty, and that is something I really didn't expect.

The rest of the tracks aren't as long as the first one, but they are perhaps even more skillfully composed, and make up an excellent blend of IDM and powernoise. It's hard to analyze the album in terms of theme or content, but it's certainly an enjoyable urban sound perfectly suited for a cold day in october. Especially a track like "Zygoma Boom" or "Salt. Wound. Sandpaper.", which contains all the distorted anger of the best in powernoise, and all the brain dancy joy of IDM. Comparisons to Converter or Noisex spring to mind. And then there's little bundles of dark fun, like "Ointment or so we thought", which makes me think of Aphex Twin on a nasty coctail of ritalin and benzo's. It's been some time since I've managed to listen to an entire album in this landscape without getting really bored, as the genre tends towards repetition and predictability. This album is dynamic and manages to stay exciting.

Something else I find very pleasing about this release is the way Absence Insolution manages to pile umpteen layers of sound in there without turning the result into a porridge of indistinguishable crap. Every single sound is audible and clear. My only complaint about the album is that the first track doesn't fit all that well with the rest of the album, despite being really good. Leaving it out would've resulted in a more focused experience. I also fear that many potential listeners can get lost in the lengthy noise ouvre.

Sadly Absence Insolution doesn't get the attention it would deserve. I've not forgotten would really have been something for Hymen, Hands or Ant-Zen to pick up. While I really appreciate the fact that it's a free download, it deserves a larger audience and support from a label.

If you're into powernoise you really need to give this one a listen. I'm serious. Smack it on your mpfree player and lace up your boots. It's not gonna revolutionize your philosophy or anything, but it certainly will make that walk through the city more vibrant. Three thumbs up!

USA, self released, album download, 2010,

1 I've not forgotten
2 Rape Sequence
3 Zygoma Boom
4 Ointment or so we thought.
5 Salt. Wound. Sandpaper.
6 Black Hole. Magnetic Pole.
7 the Inconceivable p.m.b.
8 Sorry I wrote this
9 Tender Longing

http://absenceinsolution.bandcamp.com/