Artist: Monstrare / Wilt

Album: Graveflowers

Year: ??

Label: Angle-Rec

Genre: Drone, Dark Ambient

Website: www.doctsect.com, www.adnoiseam.com/wilt, www.angle-rec.net

Rating: 5.5-6/10

Tracklist:

(monstrare)

1. Mem Na’ught

2. Turye Es Undas Urmae

3. Fouen Lzsir

4. Qui Wuen

5. Kjeordina Rosicrucianae Secretaes

6. Turye Undas Fiurmae

(wilt)

7. From the Museum of Sleep

8. Hemophilic Root Plow

9. When We Had Skin

10. Unrest

This is actually my first experience with either of the artists on this split. I have heard of Wilt through Ad Noiseam and upon receiving this album I was very eager to finally hear them. I will open by saying that I love the packaging on this album. It comes in a nice two panel digital with fantastic artwork that really sets the tone for this record. The quintessential bleak and barren landscapes in the dark blue/grey/black color scheme is both beautifully depressing and hauntingly inviting.

The first six tracks on this release are from Monstrare, which is yet another manifestation of the ever-prolific Cordell Klier. They all have a similar sound while not sounding completely like carbon copies of one another. I’m not the biggest fan of drone-type ambient, but I did enjoy these tracks. The first three tracks are a juxtaposition of stark and minimal dark ambience in the background and strange clicks and beeps in the foreground. I guess one could almost call this ambient glitch. The beeps are just enough to keep the listener interested without sounding abrasive or annoying. The mixing and production on this is exceptional; all of the sounds are crystal clear and nothing seems to be battling for space or position. Unfortunately the tracks are a bit boring, and they are more or less the same type of thing for their entire duration. Each track is one type of ambience with 6 or 7 types of beeping and clicking sounds. However if you’re looking for something droning than I would highly recommend this. In my opinion this is a very unique take on drone-style ambient, and I have not heard anything like it before.  At track 4 and beyond, Monstrare starts to work with more abrasive type sounds. The ambience becomes louder and more distorted, becoming harsh but not too terribly abrasive. The clicks and beeps remain although they are longer and sound more pummeling. I can’t really get into these tracks, but fans of noise might like this. These abrasive songs have little semblance of structure and seem to just be random shit thrown together with no true direction or purpose.  The final Monstrare song is perhaps the most developed and interesting track on the album. It incorporates multiple types of ambience and comes off sound almost movie-score-like. It is more towards the opening dark ambient tracks but with harsh overtones. Initially it seems to have direction, but it fails to develop into anything. There is a subtle crescendo throughout the track, however it fails to have any sort of true crux and/or valleys to contrast.

Overall the Monstrare side is mediocre dark/harsh ambient. I enjoyed the first three tracks the most and would definitely recommend them to fans of drone. I can’t say I really enjoyed the last three or understood why they exist, but perhaps I just don’t ‘get’ harsh ambient. I don’t feel that they (successfully) built up any kind of atmosphere or took me some place outside these walls.

The final four tracks are from drone ambient outfit Wilt who has produced a huge number of recordings in recent years. As expected, these tracks are mostly of a droning nature. To be honest Wilt provides us mostly with extremely slow and boring drone. But I will argue that this is not entirely bad. In fact, I will say that Wilt have a penchant for creating dreary and impressive droning atmospheres. For the most part, yes, the album is ‘boring’, but one most listen closely for certain subtleties. There is always the most upfront droning atmosphere which is the spine of the music, but Wilt make sure to fill their music with numerous small noises and changes which keep it from being merit-less.  These songs gradually and continuously change and mutate throughout their entire duration which makes them an enjoyable listen. One of the best things is that they hardly ever repeat things. They will bring in the sound of a distant gong or distant beeping, but it only stays for 15 or 20 seconds before disappearing back into the fog and then never re-surfacing. This shows that they took some time on these tracks.

Unfortunately Wilt also falls victim to the perils of the Monstrare tracks…that is, the perils of harsh ambient. The Wilt track, “Homophilic Root Plow” is almost entirely harsh abrasive ambient which I hate. It just seems unnecessarily painful and pointless without evoking any kind of emotion within me. The third track, “When We Had Skin” is an interesting combination of the darker atmospheric drones with layers of harsher noise on top. I think they pull of this track well, as the drones give it an underlying dark and depressive atmosphere and the harsh noises give it body without being overly abrasive and un-listenable.

Overall, I find that on this album Wilt offers and interesting mixture of drone and harsher ambient. It’s not the best drone I’ve ever heard, but it is solid in its own right. The production is a bit muddier than the previous band which reduces some of the richness of the atmosphere and makes the noisier parts sound even less appealing.

As for the entire album…I enjoyed the darker songs that focus more on building and maintaining atmospheric and I was not impressed by the harsher stuff at all. There are some very good cold fog-enshrouded depressing atmospheres presented on this work and I only wish that both bands had focused more on that style. The harsh stuff to me seems to lack conviction or purpose. Perhaps some people find meditative qualities in harsh droning noise, but it just annoys and aggravates me. I really enjoyed about half of the album, while the other half just felt lacking in emotion and technical ingenuity.  I felt like at first Monstrare was bringing something new and exciting to the world of drone, but it didn’t quite pan out as I had hoped. Wilt is pretty standard drone / harsh drone and doesn’t try to push the genre too much, although they are good at what they do. Unfortunately, the final experience did not fully live up to the hopes that I had envisioned upon the viewing of the cover art.

-[.d4n b4rr3tt.]

january 2008