Collective Zine

music reviews since 1997

W>A>S>P>S – Nacht und Nebel – split – 7″ (2013)

ByAndy Malcolm

Jul 23, 2013 #W>A>S>P>S - Nacht und Nebel

W>A>S>P>S – Nacht und Nebel – split – 7″ (2013)” align=”right” /></p> <p>Labels: self released<br /> Review by: Alex Hannan</p> <p>The man behind W>A>S>P>S has ten years’ worth of releases listed on his discography including a stint in the post-rock band SWIMMING, but this project seems only to have been active in the past couple of years. His side is a gritty, snarling bass drone with shifting layers of distortion and interference haloed around it – texturally interesting on the micro scale, static on the macro scale. It could be an immersive experience at high volume, but the split 7″ format seems an odd choice to present this kind of sound – it doesn’t really allow enough time for it to sink in. However, judging by some of the other W>A>S>P>S releases available, like a recent 2xC15 cassette pack, edition of 6, perhaps on record their creator is more into making noise-curios than mind-altering blasts. Live could, of course, be a different story.<br /> <br /><Br><br /> nacht und nebel is a noise project from Henry of MOLOCH and NADIR – “all sounds originally made with a ‘cello”, says his bandcamp – and here he gives us three short noise-haikus. The layering and broad textural variety is an immediate contrast with the flipside – “those that tremble as if they were mad” moves through gently repetitive loops into washes of drones and buzzes before riding out a muffled chugging loop, “derinkuyu” has a particularly eerie texture of deep muffled clangs, distortion and strings of little high-frequency squeals, and “anareta” pits squalls of fuzz against deeper underwater resonances.<br /> <br /><Br><br /> There’s a certain conceptual elegance to having all these sounds come from a cello, an instrument heavily associated with Romantic grandeur and pathos. Knowledge of the sounds’ origins makes the process of construction part of the interest of this side – how the cello has been struck and manipulated to achieve the final result. nacht und nebel’s bandcamp is stuffed with downloadable/streamable releases so I’d recommend a wander through there… this 7″ seems a good place to start, too.</p> <p><iframe style=split 7" with W>A>S>P>S by nacht und nebel

By Andy Malcolm

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