
Filth - Winter Mind [Out-Of-Body Records - 2011]"Winter Mind" is the debut tape of appropriately named American act Filth, aka Rob Buttrum who also runs Texas noise club House Of Tinnitus. Presentation and graphic style are very nice and fit perfectly with the sounds that follow: over-saturated, violent industrial noise that reminds me a lot of some stuff by Wolf Eyes.Pounding low-frequency synth blasts and short pauses between the bursts of noise that give all the four pieces an interesting and anxious pace, while screeching and wooshing tape manipulation, distorted synth work and effected shouted vocals enrich the variety of the tracks and maintain a constant tide of sound. As already mentioned in previous reviews, I’m a sucker for crude tape tweaking sounds, so the abundance of them in "Winter Mind" is a major plus for me. On the other hand I can point out a flaw: some weak and seemingly unnecessary parts drag on for too long while some extra effective and strong ones are gone too quickly. It's a totally subjective remark of course, so take it with a grain of salt. Another thing that didn't work for me is the (scarce, to say the truth) use of drum machine beats: It's a sound I’m not particularly fond of, and that I feel it's a bit out of place here. They're not too invasive though, so it's not a big problem. In conclusion "Winter Mind" is definitely not bad, and the fact that it's a debut release, even if not really from a newcomer, increases the interest in what could come up next. Give it a spin and keep your ears ready for more Filth..      Nicola Vinciguerra
|