Skip to main content

Wet Nurse – V A S E S


Canadian noise/dark electronics project Wet Nurse just released V A S E S, and it’s making me uneasy in the best kind of way. I hadn’t felt this unnerved since the Noisefest last year, and it’s all thanks to the masterful mix of sound manipulations and creepy vocals present here.
Disturbed lyrics speaking of drugs, sex, depression and depravity are common in the noise genres, but they’re not so “in your face” as say Whitehouse or other power electronics groups would present them. Instead they feel composed, deliberate, and they mesh well with the disturbances underneath. Alabama poet Matt Finney is responsible for these words, and he knows how to get me going when it comes to grime and filthy ambiance.
The album seems to get more intense as it goes in, with V A S E S being so calm it almost doesn’t fit in with the others. There’s almost a duality going on with the soft-spoken vocals during the first track and the distorted anger in the second half of the last song. The music itself actually has more structure than a noise piece would, as the deliberate vocals would imply, as there are beats throughout the record. They’re distorted and reverbed, but they’re there, and they give you something to hang on to while trying to figure out where the song’s going.
The textures were varied and dynamic, and very obviously worked upon. The fizzes, hisses, filthy basses and ominous progressions all added up to create some anxiety-inducing moments, and the use of actual notes and chords was welcome. Wet Nurse knows how to keep a song interesting and unpredictable while maintaining musicality and structure, which isn’t something many can do. This obviously isn’t a complaint towards more noise-oriented acts, Wet Nurse just actually writes good songs.

Even if you’re not into electronics or noise, with a certain frame of mind one could still get into this album, by virtue of its doom/drone-like qualities. Overall this is an excellent piece of claustrophobic work which I’ll be listening to for quite a while.



Giuseppe Fitzsimmons
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grime - Live

Grime Live – Oct. 2017 The air is heavy, the lights are dim, and the conversations skittle away, hiding in the corners as Grime takes to the stage. Eyes up and hair down, I knew we were in for something good. Grime, the italian sludge act, released their first album in 2013 on the well-known Mordgrimm records. They might be the best-named band I can think of – the unclean buzz of the strings and damp mix of instruments give off a filthy, pock-marked sound, the kind you'd hear from scraping a sewer floor. I didn't know of them until their 2015 record, Circle of Molesters, but they're the kind of band who can do no wrong. The first note hit, and the bass shook me in unholy ways. After staggering a few steps back, I looked up at the stage and saw some of the best lighting since Messuggah. A white backdrop, searchlight-style movement carving the silhouettes of Grime into my retina. Marco, lead guitar, was spectacular in his theatrics. Doubling over in rage and p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Phrenelith – Desolate Endscape

Phrenelith Desolate Endscape – 2017 Remember when the Internet went crazy for Pissgrave – Suicide Euphoria (Profound Lore Records) back in 2015 ? It's time for a new riot straight from the abyss, and the demon's name is Phrenelith. Born in 2013 in Copenhagen, Phrenelith started their career out with a split with Spectral Voice (Iron Bonehead, 2016), followed shortly by an EP (Chimaerian Offspring – Extremely Rotten Productions, 2017) and a masterpiece of an album, Desolate Endscape (Dark Descent Records, 2017). Desolate Endscape is the kind of album that reminds me why I like death metal – it's inherently primal , evil and intimidating. This record is a massive slab of death metal, dense and heavy and being thrown at your face. The fact that there's zero flourish or unnecessary technicality brings Phrenelith to the forefront of the cavemanesque caverncore scene that's been simmering for the past decade. The entire album drips with ichor, and while ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Five the Hierophant – Over Phlegeton

Five the Hierophant – Over Phlegeton Dark Essence Records – 2017 There's a rare breed of album which instantly becomes a cult classic, and I can confidently say Over Phlegeton is one of them. Experimental, weird, bizarre, none of these words come close to describing just how extraordinary and interesting this record is. If I had to draw parallels with another band, I'd say it's a heavier, more mature version of Mamaleek, with many similar elements such as the ethnic percussions or non-traditional scales, but with a much darker visage and more detailed composition. There have been incredible avant-garde metal albums using unconventional instruments, but none have been so tactfully used as the saxophone is on Over Phlegeton. Played as a full instrument and not a token nod to some jazzy experimentation, Five the Hierophant explore the extremeties of what the sax can do – from screaming leads floating above the guitars to wailing voices in the wind, passing by hear...
Post a Comment
Read more