Various Artists - Zelphabet volume B [Zelphabet - 2008]Zelphabet volume B is the second in a series of 26 compilations each featuring sound/ noise/ experimental artists names who start with each conceding letter of the Alphabet- with this edition easily topping the great start of Volume A. Featuring a track a piece from The Beast People,16 Bitch Pile-Up, Black humour, Bob Bellerue. First up is The Beast people track Backing (somewhere between Humans and animals) which is a wonderful strange sonic landscapes of weird calls, shouts and vocal noises that trails off into noise trails and bizarre swirls. As the track goes on things start to become more noisy and denser. The track mangers to be alien, comical and at times rather threatening. Next up 16 Bitch Pile up who I’ve not heard anything from since their excellent full length Bury Me deep on troniks from last year. Here they offer up the track No Burden, No Guilt which rather nicely leads in from the last track with it chorus of demented and crazed female voices, before settling into primal and noisy slog of whining/ burning electronics, mass of voices, lots of echo and effects peddles- and this great primitive banging tone. Next up is Black Humour’s track and do what/ control which is simply superb brain screwing bit of audio mayhem-using just looped and slightly altering collection female voices samples that are span out for near on twenty minutes to make an odd almost at times rhythmic mantra of voice tones. It feels like the great NWW vocal based tracks, but a lot more tense, painful white neo fed and sleazy- much like a screw up memory of a bizarre hallucinogenic tinged sensual encounter. Lastly we have Bob Bellerue track Fridge Tower which again feels quite primal and strange like the snoozing state of some huge ageing technology beast.There's some nice smaller tone details like wire windings, wind blowing and spoon in cup stirring moving back and forth through the tracks central growing more and more noisy buzzing slumber. A great selection of tracks and really kudos must go to who every sequence them as this flow so well like a set of bizarre linked sonic worlds. I Can’t wait for volume C! Roger Batty
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