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Silo
Also on Utech, but of more interest than Anders Hana's release, is the multi-instrumental, sound generating outfit Silo. Cello, trumpet, and "traditional Maori instruments" in hand, this group does more than just pump out disjunctive noise; their soundscapes are intriguing and dark, like a stranger episode of X-Files sewn into a blanket and thrown over my head.
Utech
These sound drones have a connection with early "industrial" albums from the likes of Throbbing Gristle or Coil: the instruments and sounds used are open and natural, reverberating with an acoustic and mysterious quality that makes their beauty much easier to take in (or their ugliness, depending on the person). Squirts of near animal sounds or mechanical gibberish are inserted at key points, producing an illusion of biological growth or innate chaos. These sounds can't help but compliment each other; as far as this self-titled album goes, the choice of trumpet and cello as instruments was a good one. The band mixes the two to perfection for nearly an hour's worth of music.
The liberal use of reverb and echo on this record gets a little redundant, until it is mixed so well on the third track that it's application makes perfect sense. This song swells and moves so effortlessly that it's hard not to believe the band was recording a natural phenomena somewhere in the wilderness of the former Soviet Union. The titanic, brass sound that flows out of the speakers on this disc is imperial and crushing, an iron fist slamming down across a land already torn apart by desolation, massive tracts of land making communication impossible or, worse, undesirable. The mood kept across the entire disc is one of loneliness, tempered with a sense of dread. This is some strange hybrid of ambient and noise music; it commands attention but does so with patient breaths and soft caresses. Once the pressure has finally built up through the course of the record, all that softness has somehow turned into a force to be reckoned with.
This is a fine, airy album deserving of attention. Utech again utilizes a very minimaist packaging scheme and, in the case of this record, it doesn't work very well. All the metallic and fantastic sounds used deserve better representation in the visual realm. This, however, is my only complaint. It only marginally mars the face of this otherwise fine debut on Utech.
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