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Oakeater/Mammifer
As part of Aaron Turner's (Isis, Greymachine, and Hydra Head Records) new Sige label, this split vinyl captures both the look and feel of classic noise LPs, right down to the hand-stamped labels and lo-fi inserts. The aesthetic carries over to the sound as well, with both artists contributing tracks that share a creepy, heavy sound that joins the best of metal and harsh noise.
Oakeater’s side, "Iron Road II" begins with a melodic hum that becomes more prominent as it goes on, with added strings and guitar notes.Eventually the guitar accompanies a piano, creating a somber sound that is buried in a hazy reverb.The melancholy sound is interrupted by slow scrapes of harsh noise, cutting through like a rusty knife to leave pure malevolence.The melodic sound dies out, leaving silence alternated with monstrous, guttural voices and scraped metals that sound like they’re coming from a dark sewer, before ending on pained voices and raw noise.
Mammifer's contribution on the flip side is comparably lighter, but only relative to Oakeater's track."Fake Witch" initially mixing wobbly, chiming guitar notes and careful feedback, the song quickly builds to a dense mix.With the increasingly noisy guitar taking on a psychedelic quality, I definitely felt a bit of Skullflower's presence.Lower, bassy roars show up to balance out the higher frequency guitars, and it becomes a battle between the lighter, open ambient tones and the guitar noise gutter.The fluctuation from light to dark and back again builds to cinematic intensity before everything pulls away, leaving an odd, but beautiful coda of piano, static, and guitar feedback.
The old school sensibilities that abound on this release gave me more than a twinge of nostalgia, bringing up high school memories of unpacking noise LPs ordered from Relapse Records, sometime with absolutely no knowledge of what they’d sound like other than recognizing the name or seeing cool cover art.Thankfully the sound on the vinyl emulates those occasional brilliant purchases that I still spin to this day, well over a decade later.
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