Well, "Filth" is right. This tape is nasty, it's grimy, it's filthy. Winter Mind is a mess of synth, tape manipulation, feedback, thumping drum machine and garbled vocals. A little reminiscent of other audio nasties like Sewer Election or Wolf Eyes a la "Stabbed in the Face" but stretched out for ten minutes at a time. There's a nice crustiness to the fidelity that works for this sort of thing. So even when the tape gets relatively consonant, as on the standout, grooving "White Decay," it's always undermined by some warble and crackle. Filth is meant to be loud, the liner notes command you to "play at maximum volume," and it's aggressive as well but I do like that Rob Buttrum, the body and mind behind the project, leaves space around the distortion. It makes for a more dynamic listen than the work by some other lo-fi noiseniks. I'm not an expert in the stereo crumble genre but this stuff sounds pretty good to me. Winter Mind is worth checking out if your looking to feast on barbed wire.
Even though I dig the "live/no overdubs" vibe, some editing would have been nice. In other words, I probably didn't need a full 55 minutes of this carnage. But I'm notoriously nitpicky about long cassettes, so take that criticism as you will.
This was the first release on Denton, TX label, Out-of-Body Records who also put out a spooky Flesh Coffin tape that deserves some words as well.
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