Aural Pressure

ANM | January 28, 2005

The Mechanoise Labs record label and I have an ongoing love / hate relationship. Some of their releases, which will remain nameless to protect the guilty parties involved, have caused me to throw the CD against my living room wall in disgust and fury at the ineptitude of music I was forced to listen to. On the other hand releases by The Last Day, Aluminum Noise and Noxious Nub, to name but a few, were strangely beguiling in the ‘it’s so weird and noisy it’s good’ style.

The last release I heard by the Russian artist Kryptogen Rundfunk was on his split cd release with fellow compatriot Rupor Udara ( Mechanoise Labs 019 ) and it was a total ‘fuck me what the fuck is that?’ enjoyable experience of the highest order. I’m happy to report that "22.SZ" follows that blueprint to the nth degree. Treading the musical vision of Experimental, with a huge capital ‘E’, sounds with darkly pervading ambient overtones and blasts of intrusive white noise and digital glitch passages the overall effect is one of controlled chaos that stays just on the right side of accessibility. ‘You’ve gotta roll with it’ as those dumb ass Manchester cunts once sang. As you can imagine ‘22.SZ’ is not a record that will reach out to the masses. By its very nature the music, if you wish to call it that, can be a testing unfathomable melange that’s hard to get into. The static bursts and atmospheric drones that prevail mask an unearthly deep seductive experience. Only through persistent perseverance on the part of the listener will the gigantic scope and vision of the abstract flow of the artists true imagination shine through. Whether you have the patience, tolerance or willpower to actually allow yourself to be immersed in a sea of undulating concrete sound that only makes sense after repeated plays only you will know.

If you do manage to stick with it you’ll be ultimately rewarded with a kaleidoscope of fresh ideas that may alter forever your views on experimental music.

link to original review