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

Hexenoise – II

Hexenoise – II March 2019 – Unsigned After the excellent catastrophic sludge monolith that was Heavy Drugs Smashed Amps, Hexendrone began showing signs of veering straight off the cliff and free-fall into the jagged forest of noise, having recorded a split with B ol', a mysterious experimental act whose only proof of existence is their presence in said split. A sharp-eyed reader might notice Hexendrone not having the same name on this record. Indeed, the Russians may have wanted to clearly separate both sounds without creating an entirely new project, hence the Hexenoise and Hexendrone entities. Their approach to sludge always noisy and approximative, yet II displays remarkable forethought and composition given the genre. Acoustic drums accompany the slow, intangible Go Home!, giving it structure and giving me something to hold on to while my lungs and head are crushed. A vice made of guitar distortion and bass rumble, feeding into an ever-growing drone, constrict...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sulphurous - Dolorous Death Knell

Sulphurous – Dolorous Death Knell December 2018 – Dark Descent Records 90s revival and cavernous death metal started gaining popularity about two years ago, with bands such as Phrenelith and Pissgrave being propelled into quasi-mainstream success thanks to a couple of public figures introducing their audiences to an otherwise relatively underground facet of death metal. Dark Descent Records have certainly capitalized on said revival, signing giants of the genre like Blood Incantation, Spectral Voice, and previously Chthe’ilist (and Mitochondrion to a certain degree). As with any other cavernous death metal record, the production is the first thing you’ll notice – it’s all suffocated, as if the amps were draped in thick curtains. Few effects and no triggers are applied to the drums, giving the whole package a very live/practice room aspect. Despite the apparent muddiness of Dolorous Death Knell, everything’s quite audible – even the lower registers somehow retain ...
Post a Comment
Read more