SEPLOPHOBIA / WAPSTAN SPLIT CDR - BRISE-CUL RECORDS - VITAL WEEKLY

Seplophobia plays noise music, but one of a kind that I like. It's loud but static, and I mean real static. Small changes in the frequencies make the music. It's a violent form of drone music that, when played loud, will certainly go right into your brain. 'Nightfall' sounds like rain being played through a bunch of filters of an analogue synthesizer.

SEPLOPHOBIA - UNTITLED - NITRO DRAGSTERS: A TRIBUTE TO OVMN AND THE INCAPACITANTS 2xCDR - HARSH NOISE

Shrill streams of waterlogged shimmer flushed through razored dental scree. Dilatory, iron-tinged waves slip, slide, salivate in sheer, sharply chipped, whittled down scuzz-wail.
Harshness 7.8 Density 5.7 Spascity 2.7 Rawness 3.3 Craftsmanship 7.8 Harmonicaness 6.2

SEPLOPHOBIA / POST-MORTEM-JUNKIE C30 - STOP/EJECT RECORDS / SKELETONE - NIGHT SCIENCE III

Ryan and Randall are between them cranking out solid label and project discographies in this field, with any and all of their work definitely worth exhumating when opportune. This release marks one of many they have ventured into collectively, but the first I think to split their respective projects. Seplophobia is simply sickening, a rotting low-end dripping with the occasional sinew of faded feedback or peeled-away piece of additional reverb. It's a simple but devastating approach, decomposition and liquification set down on tape for a syrupy mess to ooze out over the 15 minute horror show while the black mess of bassy rumble barely moves. The occasional glimpses of additional frequency or snips of sound do all the work, sporadic punctures of grisly detail re-igniting the reactions SEPLOPHOBIA instills.

SEPLOPHOBIA / POST-MORTEM-JUNKIE C30 - STOP/EJECT RECORDS / SKELETONE - DEAD ANGEL

Being a fan of zombies, I was stoked when Randall traded me this sick piece of audio filth. Killer artwork from "The Walking Dead" comic book featuring some gross dudes with peeling faces and a hunger for brains. Seplophobia's track starts off with the best fucking opener ever... "CHOKE ON 'EM!!!"... then it's all synth-muck and dense rumbling drone noise. This shit is so psychedelic... I listened to this all lurched out on too much Benadryl and it couldn't have been better! Serious developing madness, starts off with the rumbles that leave nice boot-prints all over your skull and develops into the more assaulting high-pitched skree later on, but still with the nice droney KSSSH going. Post-Mortem Junkie's attack is similar, but not, if you know what I'm saying. Not even giving you a moment to catch your breath, P-MJ takes an axe to your face and doesn't apologize. A thick and meaty soup of sub-atomic shakes and electronic growls for a solid, disorienting 15 minutes. Sweet.

CITY OF THE DEAD CDR - SNIP-SNIP RECORDS - AVERSIONONLINE.COM - 6/10

After a painfully obnoxious two-minute intro of synths and samples (all of which seems to have been clipped from an old movie or TV show or something), this project, who takes its name from the fear of decaying matter, finally cranks into some abrasive harsh noise that actually has a lot of strange depth to it for taking such a standard road. So not only do I like it, but this form of distorted noise has never been such a welcomed visitor to my ears! Seriously, that intro is horrendous and severely mars this otherwise strong outing when looking at the big picture. The second track is acerbic as hell: A two-minute assault of total mayhem with lots of biting high-end and a few bass-y surges. But then the next composition is a great dark ambient track, filled with low-end drones and machinated textures in the distance behind winding feedback, creating a much more sinister atmosphere that acts as a great breather from all of the caustic distortion and overloaded volumes. Next up is a middleground sort of approach that fuses more of an ambient throb with crispy midrange wisps and a quick shot of distorted spoken vocals, all of which transitions nicely into the longer and again louder/harsher piece that follows. I'm definitely digging that the aggressive noise here has some feeling to it, and I'm glad that the opening track is the only one that's more towards a true harsh noise style, whereas bits and pieces of death industrial atmospheres are definitely peeking through the cracks in the other harsher compositions. This one ends with another sample, and a pretty long one at that, so… I'm definitely thinking that's not the way to go for this project, as both such instances of that approach herein aren't beneficial to the work at all. Closing things out is another sparse dark ambient piece, this one nearly eight minutes long and feeling slightly more abstract in its use of wavering motion and shuffling back and forth surges. As usual with Snip-Snip, the CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with simple xeroxed artwork wrapped around each other on colored paper, so the use of text and imagery is minimal, and the presentation could use some stepping up. I don't care for the fact that all of these tracks are untitled, but thankfully the music actually possesses a lot of intrigue and character, so that makes up for it. This is also a well timed release that makes its mark and moves right along, which is something that I tend to appreciate when it comes to experimental noise. The intro is terrible, and not every track is as consistently powerful as the finer moments, but this is definitely a project that I'll be curious about in the future, because at its best this disc has some great material to offer.