MOONMILK “Hidden Speech” (DNT)

The quietest-dubbing tape label in the land is back with another hissy, murk work of tonal studies. Moonmilk is Lia and Kell and they find frequencies they like and let them oscillate in muted stasis for several minutes, then add a high-pitched whine, or an extra layer of radio static, or a stereo-panned air conditioning unit, then fade out. Despite the name, there’s very little lunar or milky about the proceedings here. More of a numb, mechanistic sleepwalking vibe to these recordings, like a field recording of an electronics reply shop in the Valley after midnight…just one or 2 tired individuals slowly dealing with dusty machinery. The B side is twice as loud and ten times more new age (well, the first half is anyway…then the rotating turbines get turned back on), so I prefer it on principle. But crudely folded oversized artwork of grainy, black-and-white photoshoppery doesn’t humanize the experience any. For fans of T3: Rise of the Machines.