Static Goat - I Am In Hell, Help Me [Self Release - 2014]I Am In Hell, Help Me is another sonic brain scramble from this Southern California project - it mixes together wonky & wavering electronica, slurred synth melodies, psychedelic noise, layers of weird sounds, samples, melted ad jingles, and all manner of puzzling/ deranged fare that’s fed into a often dense & twisted mass of sound. This release appeared in September 2014, and came in three editions- two separate mp3 releases( on two separate underground labels?!), and a pro CDR- I’m reviewing the pro CDR. The CDR comes in a DVD case that features a deranged colour photo collage that takes in diseased organs, insects, skulls, pigs, bats, decay, bound hands, Jesus, butterflies, maggots, hospital beds, people in scrubs. Inside we get a inlay card featuring the alternative/original artwork which features a drawing of a suited maggot man holding up money, with trees underneath with hang bodies in them. Also On the inlay we get the track listing, and whose involved & this time around the projects a two piece, taking in Izedis & Molenaar. The album takes in nine tracks in all, and these run between two & thirty nine minutes a piece. It’s fair to say this gets more unhinged & deranged the further it goes on- to start with the early tracks mix together fairly lo-fi tuneful synth & electronica beats with subtle noise & weird-ness, but track by track things get more odd, layered, and weird. The first eight tracks are fairly short lasting between two & five minutes a piece, but the final title track comes in at just under the forty minute mark. The title track in heady, intense & shifting blend of: accelerating & pitch shifting synth tones. Sways of billowing, battering & searing noise matter. Stretched screams/ whispers & digitized demonic chatter, and latter slurred electronica. The track remains fairly dense for much of it’s runtime, but towards the later part we move towards more thinned back, melted, eerier, and unsettling dips in the dense-ness. On the whole it mangers to keep ones attention through out it’s nearing forty minute play time, and it’s a satisfying enough slice of brain scrambling Sonics. So in conclusion if your after some head-fucking sonics, that meld & mix noise, electronica & melted samples into a psychedelic & deranged whole, I Am In Hell, Help Me is certainly worthy of your time. Roger Batty
|