Tinieblas - Generous Bandit [AbsenceTapes - 2010]'Generous Bandit' is a four c20 tape box set from California based HNW project Tinieblas. All this projects work is themed around Mexican drug wars ,various Mexican gangster and related folklore characters. This box set takes in particular it's influence from the legend of Jesús Malverde- a Mexican Robin Hood type character who was killed for his crimes in 1909. The four distinctive see-through orange tapes come in a small sized white vinyl book with the cover featuring a picture of Jesús Malverde and on the back a full list of the eight ten minute tracks- it's all printed with black ink of slightly metallic white paper stock. The box also features a single sheet paper inlay talking about Jesús Malverde hanging, how he was denied a burial by the towns officials, and how the towns people would come at night with small stones to his hanging place and this became his grave. Starting off the set on side one of tape one we have “May 3, 1909” (which was the date when Jesús Malverde was meant to have been killed) the track starts off with a grainy yet quite thin static haze, then with in ten or so seconds it jumps into a very thick, persistent and quite rough sounding ‘wall’ of fast paced locked judder- the ‘wall’ has such a great rich, oppressive and airless feel to. The rest of the track mainly remains locked into a similar grain and progression though-out, yet there are a few nudges long the way like: the odd roar or tear in the wall mid-way and more extreme juddering loop taking over proceeds briefly- but the track never lose it’s murky, thick and airless vibe. Over onto the second side of tape one & we have a track entitled “Death Lights The Way” and this starts out with a huge grainy scream of static tone, before it smashers head first into a few moments of stark and battering judder then jumps into a very thick and dense juddering ‘n’ roaring ‘wall’ of sound. This thicker and denser setting stays in place for the rest of the track as Tinieblas batters away at you in a similar manner to the first sides track; yet where that sides track was quite oppressive and airless this sides track seems more angry and furnace like in it’s attack Onto tape tow and on it’s first side we have “Upon The Stones” and this starts out with a minute and a half of this great 'n' crude single strand of jittering static tone that sounds like electric arcing in a starkness of a torture chamber. Then it slams into a roar torrent of roasting and thick static grain which stills has vague traces of the starts original single strand static element in it’s guts, but now it not jittering it's in constant flame throwing mode. This track like the other tracks so far is once more very thick and unforgiving in its stance, yet there’s a feeling of an aggravated swirling and cooking going on here too.
Over to the second side of tape two and we have the track “Bracing For Death” and this track jumps straight in with a juddering, steaming, roasting and fast moving ‘wall’ which feels like your been rolled over by a huge steam powered steel roller. There’s a few really nice battering wind like subtones that raise there heads as the track batters away at you like almost an unrelenting elemental force. So onto tape three and on the first side we have “Above The Stones” and this track starts out with male voice talking in Mexican for just over a minute before there’s a brief roar of static grain, then it falls head first into thick juddering sea of static emersion. As the rest of track goes on the ‘wall’ mixers together slowly changing roaring drifts, huge juddering roasts and muffled noise white-out grains. This is another great and pounding track. Over onto side two and we have “Where The Saint Hangs” and this side once more starts out with a male voice talking in Mexican for twenty or so seconds then it jumps into this huge sounding juddering ‘wall’ of roaring tone that has some nice ‘n’ crude rumbling under currents running through it’s nasty ‘wall’ of sonic pain.
So onto the fourth and last tape in the box and on side one we have “Generous Bandit From Culiacan” and this starts out with jumping ‘n’ jittering quite thick sounding single strand of static tone that Tinieblas stretches out in quite a taunt and tense manner- at times it threatens to stops or sometimes it becomes faster and more crowded, yet it always remains quite stark and persistent in it’s feel. With hissing and muffled dragging subtones appearing here and there along the tracks nervy way. Onto side two and we have “101 Years” (which is of course the amount of years since Jesús Malverde death)- This track starts out with a locked ‘n’ muffled ocean like roar, then with in a few minutes it adds in a more bass & earth rumble like feel to it’s ‘wall’ . After this slight shift the ‘wall’ remains the same for the remainder of the track- it been very focused and drilling in it’s intent, making this a very niece brutal and crude end to this set. Very sadly there were only 6 copies made in total made of this great, highly consistent, and originally themed box set. Lets hope Absence tapes decide to reissues this at some point, because there's really a great collection of eight brutal and caustically crude walls on offer here , and a lot more than six people need to hear this. Roger Batty
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