Iron Curtain - Wall 'n' Brick [Monolithische Aktion - 2009]‘Wall 'n' Brick’ offers up 10 tracks of short HNW making- the idea behind the album is that each track is a brick in a huge wall of sound i.e. the whole album is seen as a wall. It’s an interesting concept, though for me it’s more than a little underwelming. You see my idea of a good slice of HNW making is something that last at least twenty minutes per track; so you can get sucked-in & hypnotised by the wall of crunching or crushing sound and get lost in the texture of the track. Here the longest track is just over nine minutes long- so just as your getting well & truly buried or engulfed by the texture of the wall the tracks finished & you moved onto the next one- which is most frustrating. And of the other tracks here are even shorter with some coming-in just over the minute mark; which really gives you no time to get your minds teeth into the tracks texture. Sure the ‘Walls’ through-out the disk are varied & well made going from: deep rumbles & rolling boils, Onto hissing judders, through to crunching & crackling static thickness. And I find myself really starting to enjoy many of the ‘walls’, but the thing is there gone before a true investigation of the texture & tonality can been done. All told an interesting idea or concept for a HNW release- but personally it's not my cup of tea. Certainly this is worth a look if you find HNW releases or tracks usually too long or involved for you liking; but for those(like me) who enjoy more lengthy submersion in ‘wall’ making this is best steered clear of. Roger Batty
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