Hoggle - The Corridor [Oktomedia - 2012]“The Corridor” is the third release from this US HNW project, which themes all of its releases around the classic 80’s Jim Henson family fantasy puppet/ live action movie The Labyrinth. This release comes in the form of a c62 cassette tape, and each side of tape features one long wall of noise. The gold ‘n’ black spray painted/ splattered tape comes in a yellow paper sleeve, which features a picture of a narrow brick wall corridor. This sleeves fine & effective enough, though my copy seems a little too dark & over-printed. Moving onto the noise with-in, on side one we have “Left”, and this starts with a quirky voice from the movie saying “ Will you choose the left or the right path?”. Then we’re into the ‘wall’ which is a mixture of a locked billowing mid-ranged noise, and jittering slightly crisp mids. The billowing element stays fixed & battering through-out, though the jittering textures seem to subtle shift thier patterns. Also from time to time there seems some sub-tone textures appearing in the ‘walls’ make-up, and these are smaller/ more compact versions of the jittering elements. Latter-on there seems to a really jittered almost harmonic texture that’s add into the mix, and this nicely focuses one mind even more . The track ends with the quirky voice saying “Me, I wouldn’t go either way!”. All told the tracks an effective enough slice of billowing ‘n’ jittering bound ‘wall-making’, sure it’s no great departure from what this project has put out before, but the subtle shifting sub-tones & the later jittering semi- harmonic element nicely keep your brain sucked into the ‘walls’ structure. Over onto side two, and we have the track “ Right”. The track opens with a sample of the female teenage human heroine of the movie saying. “There are no turns, or coroners or anything…it just goes on & on”. Then we're thrown into the battering/ intense wall which is a quite overwhelming mixture mid-ranged rolling, billowing & juddering, that’s lined by slightly crisper & thinner ripped static sub-tones. This ‘wall’ is very dense, panic filled and overwhelming in it’s feel, and it nicely captures the feeling one would have if stuck inside a huge Labyrinth or maze. The track ends with a quiky dwarf like voice “Things are not always what they seem in this place”. I enjoyed this ‘wall’ for it’s first half, but I’m afraid after that point my attention started to wane & the battering brutality seemed to lose it’s impact….again this sides ok, though I felt the track should have been half it’s length. So to sum-up “The Corridor” offers up two lengthy half an hour plus slices of brutal noise making- the first sides track most entrancing, but sadly the second sides track lost my interest mid-way through. Worth a look if you enjoyed this projects other work, but if you’re new to this project then try & tracking down a copy of their second release “The Entrance”…which I felt was more effective on the whole. Roger Batty
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