
Half Decayed - Engulfed By Fungus [Self release - 2025]Engulfed By Fungus is a slice of lightly searing & subtle bird song laced ANW. The single half-an-hour track managers to find that sweet spot between low-key muffled noise craft, and lulling ambience for a decidedly entrancing sound ride. As far as I can gather, Half Decayed is a new project, forming in February of this year, and has just two digital releases to its name. The projects, Bandcamp informs us that behind it is one Emma Kramer from New York.
The release artwork is a simple monochrome picture of a large white mushroom knocked over in long grass. The release can be located here
The self-titled track runs at the 30.03 mark. And is built around a relatively simple mixture of set rushing billow, constant hiss, and a distant sound of birdsong- the latter seems distant, and often difficult to define. The billow is muffled/ reduced in its volume, having an often galloping feel- with the hiss rolling out in a crude manner. Fitting the release title, I’m getting images of sped up footage of a mat of white fungus making it across a forest floor, over decaying animal remains, and over downed/ hollowed out trees.
I’ve always been a sucker for nature/ organic themed wall craft, and Engulfed By Fungus is a fairly original/ distinctive take on the ANW form. It’s always great to see new wall projects appearing, and especially female-fronted, as more often the scenes' output is very male focused in its output/ audience. So, I’ll certainly keep my eye on Half Decayed in the future.      Roger Batty
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