Glasgow Smile/Laboratory Fire - Split [Muzikaal Kabaal - 2012]Here’s a cdr on the Muzikaal Kabaal label, packaged in the usual, stark house style. We get two tracks from Glasgow Smile, and three from Laboratory Fire; all of which inhabit harsh, abrasive climes. Glasgow Smile is first up, establishing a brooding atmosphere that never dissipates. There’s a nice sense of restraint over the fourteen minutes: it never fully breaks open into uncontrollable noise - this gives the two pieces an unsettling, creeping quality. Both tracks are built around synth drones, feedback, layers of noise and muffled vocals. “Deep Minded” is the more linear of the two; it’s founded on a strong, low-end drone, over which scuffing noise textures and vocals patiently develop. The vocals are strained and impassioned, and after a brief passage of spoken word, they become increasingly desperate and pained. “One Pair Of Lies” is a slightly more active affair, using agitated synth squeals, waves of noise and dizzying synth bass throbs to create a more disorientating piece. Here, the vocals remain at a whisper, combining with the unrushed pace to make an effectively dark, menacing track. Laboratory Fire’s three pieces are much denser than Glasgow Smile’s, and more overtly abrasive. Synths figure predominantly in the mix, again, but here they churn and squeal chaotically and aggressively - indeed, the overall sense of the tracks is a overwhelming maelstrom of sound. Whilst undoubtedly “overwhelming”, the first piece, “Trinitite” becomes, frankly, boring. Being nearly twenty minutes long, it struggles to maintain my interest; mainly because it sits squarely between two stools: its neither static, nor hyper-kinetic. There are definite passages of near-stasis, almost approaching HNW; but these are never held very long. From the opposite angle, there are sections of chop and churn; but never a sustained barrage of chaotic pummel. So, the track positions itself in a middle ground that does little to excite me. The second offering, “Atomsite”, is indeed atomistic; being only a minute long. Its actually a single brick from what could have been a very effective wall; with a raging bass rumble and scuffing mid-frequency noise. However, the next (and final) track, “Kharitonchik”, appears to follow on from this, suggesting that the two pieces were cut from the same recording. But instead of teasing out a static wall from “Atomsite”, “Kharitonchik” subjects the textures to some stop/start manipulations; again placing it in terrain that does little for me. The two Glasgow Smile tracks are undoubtedly the highlights for me, here. They establish an effectively creepy atmosphere, that threatens violence without ever boiling over. The Laboratory Fire tracks are this violence boiled over; but instead of burning, they really just evaporate into the air. The Glasgow Smile tracks have an attention to texture and detail, that the Laboratory fire pieces just don’t have. This is partly due to the former’s production, which allows sections like the shrill, alarm-bell tones of “Deep Minded” to ring strong: the Laboratory Fire tracks sound somewhat smothered and muffled in comparison to this clarity Martin P
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