https://brachliegentapes.bandcamp.com/album/inferno
INFERNO is a split release from OPEN FRACTURE & PALE WORLD that chokes the threshold between harsh noise wall and blown out harsh noise. Both Open Fracture and Pale World focus on creating raw, corroded and dense atmospheres that contrast classic noise forms with embodied reactions to feelings of contemporary loneliness and frustration. INFERNO is the first time the artists have joined forces, and the release marks a debut for both projects on Brachliegen Tapes.
OPEN FRACTURE's side consists of three slabs of pummelling noise, starting things off with the scything, flanged full-frequency assault of 'Grave Village'. Vocal abuse builds into an abyssal canyon which carreens into 'A Length Of Hair', where it is joined by low groaning tones, like the lament of some wounded megafauna. The mist lifts slightly on ‘Cut Through’ as a shimmer of pulsing feedback surrounds the listener before dive-bombing back into despair. The echoing screams of those left behind wend through the jungle, the revenant’s re-apparition waging sonic warfare. OPEN FRACTURE describe the recording methods of INFERNO as minimal and sparse, taking elements of scorched feedback and percussion ‘and recording everything in the red with no outgoings to give everything as damaged sound as possible’. The result is a cathartic expulsion of heavy electronics from heads whose other projects include MATERIAL LOSS, THE REFLECTING SKIN and SOFT ISSUES.
PALE WORLD inhabits the b-side of INFERNO, bringing their signature style of densely atmospheric noise — developed in past releases for Outsider Art and Trust Collective — for a first outing with Brachliegen. PALE WORLD’S contribution to INFERNO consists of one long-form piece entitled ‘Clear Markings’, in which nostalgia fades and deteriorates. Great writhing textures of feedback are shaped and interrupted by sudden cuts to scraping and spring forms, before an infernal switch is flicked and a pummelling sonic assault ensues. ‘Clear Markings’ ends with these scrapes building into electroacoustic harmonic clusters, plates of sound gliding against each other.
