SOPORRIFIC “Flesh Meshing” C30 (Oreille Gardée)

Alison Flora wants you to FEEL “Flesh Meshing.” Not the usual “Oh yeah, I get the feels or whatever from this drone tape” – she wants you to FEEL IT, feel it. Like when you pet a cat so hard that it’s eyes bug out, but not in a mean way, more like just this side of massage pressure. You can get some priceless looks from cats that way. Plus, all the ones I’ve done it to like it. They curl up on your lap right after.

Whatever synth rig Flora is emanates sounds from it that massage the audio receptors in your brain hard enough that it makes their eyes bug out, if that was a thing that certain parts of your brain could do. Utilizing frequencies that practically beg to actualize into physical friction, Flora rolls them out like dense swaths of loam while punctuating them at times with rhythmic markers. The result is disorienting, like gravity keeps shifting away from what you’re used to, getting a little more intense by the moment. Soon your “flesh” will “mesh” with the surface of the earth, and Alison Flora will smile as your skin separates from your face.

https://oreillegardee.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

AFRICAN GHOST VALLEY “Ercamescz” C20 (Oreille Gardée)

As harsh as African Ghost Valley’s shredded electronic tones are, there’s a strange gentleness that infiltrates at points, hinting at melody, offering flashes of vulnerability in the midst of the dense, angst-laden song cycle. Yes, one of the tracks is called “Breathing Mud,” and that’s exactly the sense of what listening to “Ercamescz” really feels like, at least from an aural perspective: it’s the audio equivalent of breathing mud. Which you can’t do or else you’ll die. So … there’s a bit of tension here in AGV’s work.

(Oddly enough, “Breathing Mud” kind of sounds like smashing up a hotel room.)

Shouldn’t be a surprise. African Ghost Valley has dropped several excellent releases over the past few years, and “Ercamescz” is no exception. A “mini album,” this mad little tape positively sizzles with anxiety, acting as a portal to your woolliest fears, chilly and frightening and a quick tip of the mental scales away from full-on madness. But there’s still those moments of clarity, of glistening hope amid the darkest passages. There aren’t many of them, but they’re there. They probably get swallowed up completely in the end though.

https://soundcloud.com/african-ghost-valley

https://oreillegardee.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan