Abyzm - From The Depths [Excavated Prod - 2013]Abyzm is a US project from Kansas City, who offer up a mixture of drone, HNW, and ANW. Seemingly “From The Depths” is the projects first full length CDR releases, after a few splits & mini CDRs. The project started at the start of 2013, though the person behind the person behind the project has been making noise under a few different names since 1997. The CDR comes in a thin cd case, which features on it’s cover an front inversed black ‘n’ white mirrored psychedelic like pattern. On the flip side of the sleeve there’s a simple black inked text listing of the tracks, the labels web address & their logo. First up we have “Forge” which is built around a constant billowing rocket like roar, this is played over by a fixed net of thinner jittering ‘n’ juddering static tones. Both elements seem to remain fairly firm & focused through-out the track just under twenty one minute run-time. Though as the track progresses the billowing tone does seem to just ever so slightly oscillate & bend- this seems happen more & more as the track moves on, yet it’s only very minimal in it’s shift. Track two is entitled “Vault”, and it's the longest track here at the 25.50 mark. The ‘walls’ is built around a purring ‘n’ slowed juddering low end tone, and this is played over by a even-yet-slowed rain ‘n’ churn of crackling & popping mid ranged static. Once again the ‘wall’ is fairly fixed with both of it’s two main textures, though from time to time there is a slight subtle ebb or shift with-in both tones, but this is mainly done on a very small level, so the structure never really alters. Though in it’s last minutes the low-end dies back & the crack & popping rain becomes more chopping in it’s attack. The track brought to mind some vast aquatic craft endlessly buzzing & whirling along the deepest sea beds, like some aged & vast mechanized catfish. I’d say this is my favourite moment here as I liked the murky yet fixed hypnotic feel of the track, and for me it’s the most effective & entrancing of the three tracks Lastly we have “Catacombs”, and this track comes in at the 24.35 mark. This ‘wall’ is built around a juddering & slightly billowing roar, that’s played over by this sort of slowly cascading 'n' sucking mass of smaller particles of static crackle. This track has a tinny amount of shift in each main texture, but on the whole I’d say this is the most fixed of the three ‘walls’ here. That said in it’s last quarter the juddering billowing becomes more meaty & purring in it’s feel. The tracks ok, and at times I got quite sucked into it, but on the whole I felt it was a bit too similar to the other tracks with it’s mixture of low-end roar & smaller static crackle . As I said it’s an ok track, but it would have been nice to see Abyzm broken the formulael a little on this last track All three tracks here offer up a fairly entrancing & head pummelling mix of HNW, drone & ANW. I can’t say all of the tracks capture my attention to the same extent, but certainty track two really sucked me in. So I’ll certainly be interested in hear more Abyzm in the future, and see how the projects sound develops. Roger Batty
|