A Fail Association - Mirror | Meditation CS (private release, 2021)

[Scream & Writhe]

A FAIL ASSOCIATION - Mirror | Meditation CS (private release, 2021)

At first it's: What's that? A lengthy R&B(?) sample on a decayed loop? Okay. This initial calmness is not something one would typically expect to hear on what is assumed to be a blistering harsh noise tape. Then, suddenly, it's: A-ha, there it is. Sucked right into the wailing mess while the speakers play ping-pong with your dome. The sounds pile on like a raging storm in the sea. Colossal sounds like if whale calls matched the size and mammoth weight of the creatures. Like goliaths locked in battle. Waves crashing folkloric titans. Heavy, crushing, shrieking, crashing, breaking, bellowing. The personalized note within the j-card (printed on a thin, yellow textured stock) advises me to "play loud while breathing slowly". Interesting words to follow, as the louder things get the harder it is to refrain oneself from entering into the thrashing with fists in the air, chairs to the ground, tables overturned, ready to do damage. And that's only the first track. There are another 45 minutes to go. What a tape! AFA's track on the RRR "Texas" compilation hits a sweet spot for me in terms of favourites, but "Mirror | Meditation" may very well be a crowning achievement for the project. And yet here it is in a criminally limited edition of 15. The B-side is less of a titanic barroom-brawl, but no less caustic. Broken up into four tracks that often lean into wall territory for several moments at a time (apt for the "Meditation" side of things), the ever-exploratory dynamism of the project is still maintained. This tape gives a lot in its ~61-minute runtime, and it's heavy stuff all around. Find it if you can. Hold onto it if you've got it. I'll surely be writing Greg to see if he has plans for a more widely-available edition (maybe imploringly so).

[Joie de la Blumpy]

Just thought I'd mirror this for the sake of redundancy. Thing is, chap has been on fire since the ignoble return, the correct buttons decisively pressed at the correct if slightly decepti-continuous intervals. Like if Hasegawa were hacked to bits and cunningly recombined at dissociative intervals, white flashes mirroring the soul exposed to unwanted and necessary scrutiny, skating along a cline in figure eights and nines and elevens, transformers goin haywire, turned up to ten plus alpha, so less the spirals more the straight-to-skull flashes of sheer facial smackage, dripping wet, brutal and open-handed, omega primed fractals spinning in welcome disconcert. Optimus.

[HELP ME TO FEEL]

Sounds like it's an amazing listen. Which public releases from the project would you recommend?

[Scream & Writhe]

Sounds like it's an amazing listen. Which public releases from the project would you recommend?

The Chaos is a System tape on No Rent, and his contribution to the Texas 3LP compilation on RRR are personal favourites.

Just thought I'd mirror this for the sake of redundancy.

Ah yes! Undecided if a merger should occur, or if each "proper" review should count as its own thread.

[HELP ME TO FEEL]

Thank you! No Rent out out some great stuff.

[Joie de la Blumpy]

Honestly, I'd say anything since the project's ignoble return is going to slip slop SLAP. Slapping home like multiple refractions of a particular angle on things, where you'd think some thing like This Will Hurt You More Than It Will Hurt Me (Monorail) were a mirror of Chaos is a System (No Rent) which again might seem to disperse fractal shards Down South (Prose Nagge), at least as down as low as the more saturated elements of the Brothers Whitewash & Scathe, up the proverbial hidey hole, which on critical reflection were quite at odds with [if still tenuously grasping at gilded strands of] a given Hasegawa or two (or two and one hundred thousand, no doubt more Hasegawa than you can refract a cat at, put that in your Hasegawa and smoke it).

Undecided if a merger should occur, or if each "proper" review should count as its own thread.

I've thought about this a fair bit too, ever since the original post went up, and have come to the safe conclusion that, necessity is in the fingers of the beholder (don't get too excited, now). What must be will. (etc) Anyone willing to drop their load into this particular venue has automatically got my attention (down boy!).