White Plague/Wallkeeper - Split [Phage tapes - 2009]This double disc CDR release offers up two Walls of near unchanging Harsh noise matter that fall between just short of an hour & just over an hour a piece. The first disc is taken up by Minneapolis based White Plague who is Sam Stoxen(which runs Phage tapes & is also in Baculum, ...Massacre & junk noise collective Grain Belt) & Angie Ridgeway. And the second disc features Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany based HNW act Wallkeeper. The first disc is taken up by the White Plague track ‘Spread The Disease’ which comes in around the forty five minute mark & it’s quite a pleasing and almost soothing slice of textured noise making. The track is built around a slow & constant static snow like crunching & crackling dwell which the pair build into a thick, but fairly unchanged flow of sound that nicely envelopes you in it’s textural grain & tone. The track seemingly speeds-up and becomes thicker in it’s crunch 'n' settle as it goes along; through this could just be my mind playing tricks as I try to see patterns & progression with-in the sea of crunch & ebb. I guess the track can can be compared to a more searing or caustic take on drone matter or repetitive yet highly inviting ambient music. It’s ideal for locking oneself away from the world around & drifting off with the constant hypnotic static crunch 'n' fall of tone. Disc two takes in a Wallkeeper called ‘Pain Reduction’ which comes in around the 75 minute mark. This track is a bit more nasty, crusty & sleazed in it’s tone than the first discs track & it finds Wallkeeper offer a thick jittering & electro fly like feasting wall of sound. The tracks built around one rolling & fast boiling drone that’s ground & seared over by a second more active, crusty & tightly wound tone. Again the tracks fairly unchanging & unforgiving in its attack, through you can make out distinct yet slow pitch slides up & down through-out the tracks length. This is my first taster of any of Wallkeepers work and I must say I like his crusty, nasty & rapid moving take on ‘wall’ making.
So in summing up this two disc set offers up two very enjoyable, thick & unforgiving sonic excise in Harsh Noise wall making that will be very much enjoyed by those who like getting lost & hypnotized by lengthy & trance inducing noise matter. But I can also see the first track being possible enjoyed by more adventurous drone & ambient heads too. Roger Batty
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