Cover of the tape has a picture of a baby's head in some type of forceps on an otherwise all black, minimal background. I put the tape in and said out loud to my girlfriend "get ready for some harsh noise!" I started taking off my shirt, getting out the barbed wire, broken glass and mousetraps to accompany the tapes shredded innards blasting and I have to admit, I was caught off guard.
Instead, the speakers began to ooze what sounded like field recordings of a submarine or a conversation between two tectonic plates. Heavy, slow and clear the (for me) terrifying sensation of descending into a intentional dimly lit, claustrophobic environment was only offset by the almost slick presentation of the sounds. Don't know if it's a laptop of just that DM Turner (who is credited with "all sounds") really knows how to engineer a release that is immensely improved by the high quality of the sound.
The second side shifts the focus slightly on the interplay between the subtle and the overstated, like the ship is navigating its way through an algae asteroid field; this is suggested on the first side but it's almost foreshadowing for the more intense relationship of the second side.
If this tape were 4 hours longer it could be the noise version of Dark Side/OZ but instead it'd be Teratologist/Das Boot.
Still available from the label, sound clips on the site:
http://www.catharticprocess.com/
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