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Gate to Gate, "I Turn Black Keys"
Greh of Hive Mind and Mike Connelly of Hair Police and Wolf Eyes have released a monster of a record that collects two previously limited cassette releases with a new 38 minute opus dedicated to dysfunctional machinery of all kinds.
PACrec
The satanic imagery and advertised promise of "black noise" might suggest some seriously raw material, but it's the older releases that really make I Turn Black Keys shine. The title track—and first on the album—is pure distorted madness punished and shaped into various forms. There's not a whole lot on the track that suggests much beyond the standard harsh noise fare: bleeding static, roughed up rhythmic bursts, low-level bass frequencies accentuated by sudden freak punches of sound, and stuttering white noise are all intertwined and thrown about like a rag doll for close to forty minutes. What I've heard from Hive Mind has never suggested a density like this, so it's interesting to hear Greh working in this context. It's certainly not the best thing he's been involved with, but the piece does move by quickly, varying enough to keep the entire track interesting and fun. It's the next four tracks that tickle my fancy, however.
Both "Bane" and "House with the Clock in its Walls" revel in the promise of space and vacancy. Instead of flooding the aural spectrum with gargantuan walls and maniacal bulldozers, Greh and Connelly bounce analogue sounds throughout the stereo, imitating some cosmic comedy that goes severely awry, ending with earth shattering quakes and deep shrieks worthy of death metal's finest moments. These two tracks remind me most of what I liked about Hair Police on "Obedience Cuts." There's no narrative running through the music, just unhinged anger, aggression, and radical twists in style and substance. When the first part of "Bane" ends and electric saws begin cutting through the flesh and muscle of various limbs, the scream that's buried in the mix only serves to intensify the feeling that some snuff film was used in the recording of this song. The second half of "Bane" is even more punishing, the pulverizing jackhammer that forms its non-rhythm evolves into a hypnotic pulse, saturating any sense of bodily involvement and moving the entire piece onto a level of pure mental stress. "House with the Clock in its Walls" ends the disc on a very high note. The beautifully vast array of strange noises that occupy this two-part orgy shame many noise recording artists and cast Gate to Gate in an entirely new light.
While much of the disc might seem a dedication to Satan and his majestic ability to destroy, the final moments of I Turn Black Keys is somehow soothing. Not that I'd ever sleep to the record, but after nearly 60 minutes of pure, rich, black vomit, this sounds absolutely spaced out and almost peaceful. Psychedelic animation might be the single greatest strength in noise's arsenal and that strength is especially demonstrated here.
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