Inspired by KEK’s current fascination with the cassette underground – I’ve dusted off my old ‘Boots’ walkman to sample a few delights from the current renaissance the humble tape is undergoing and maybe unearth a few floating around the house.
First up is this attractively packaged one from the Sick Head label - A split 30mins of music from Birds of Delay and Nackt Insecten.
The first side is a live recording from the Birds of Delay of a recent gig in Cambridge. It comes across like a slow contraction strapped to a murky drone – a drowsy incantation sunken in heavy vapour, with devotional howlings cut across in sparse feedback, the topography of crumbled skin. In the half light, shadows play with your mind, something moans it’s last before being swallowed in electronic crackle. Creepy, deliberately sloth-like, the sound twists itself in your consciousness like environmental pollution. Somewhere in there, a mutated Tarzan is thrashing his torso into ugly shapes as chemicals eat into his skin.
The second side is from Nackt Insecten and is split into 4 trks that sort of blend into each other so I’m guessing a bit here
Hollow-skull Spekter - is an unholy spew of overloaded guitar(?), the air tasting metallic in the fizzle n crack – like a screaming beast of burden writhing around in slowly decreasing and gratuitous circles. St. Mary of the Storms – supplies a welcomed reprieve from the torn noise onslaught, a rippling of bass fuzz, a low prairie of shimmering glass-like reflections. Yellow Wraith – is blistering noise bubbling up and expanding in explosive release, a sickening cyclone that cuts away to reveal the last trk - Still Tide. This is Gregorian moan over a gorgeous bed of metallic wreckage that slips queasily through your ears, and dies off to a few sax squeaks.
excellent stuff...
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