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Sulla Giostra Nell’Ombra // V-A
Label: Violet Poison
Format: 12”
Release Date: 24/01/14
Whilst only five releases deep, from the jagged industrial soundscapes they have laid out so far, Violet Poison have proved themselves a label not for the fainthearted. The debut LP from founders Shapednoise & Violet Poison (Violetshaped) presented a dark foreboding listening experience, as did the equally chilling selection of remixes released subsequently. Their latest offering, the intriguingly titled ‘Sulla Giostra Nell’Ombra’ EP, it appears should be approached no differently; a fact evident even simply following a cursory glance at the various artists named on its tracklist.
The first offering comes from a new collaborative project, ‘Ontario Hospital’. Made up of Canadian producer’s Richard Oddie (Orphx) & Dave Foster (Teste), their track entitled ‘Delirium Tremens’ shudders into life with quaking low-end, heavy blasts of concrete noise smashing through the mix. Following its first minute or so there is little change to the tracks foundations; its elements are instead processed, warped and mangled with various effects, individually bringing different elements in and out of focus.
Irish producer & She Works affiliate Sunil Sharpe follows with ‘Ground Skull Dust’ the track’s almost absurdly gothic title is infact rather fitting description for the crushing, gravelly percussion and clanging, discordant melody with which it is comprised.
To call third track, ‘Function’ unconventional would be something of an understatement. Produced by Stray Landings’ favourite Serbian techno duo Ontal, the track was one I had picked to watch out for on the tracklist, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. The pair’s tasteful pulses of vapourous sound-design are quickly shunted to the background by eardrum shattering thrusts of dense noise, maintained with fierce consistency - as if Ontal were maniacally attempting to drill to the earth’s core. As the track progresses it slowly builds to a climax, thundering noise eventually seeming to break through, only for the cycle to begin once again.
The final track also see’s the introduction of a new project; Berlin’s Ascion here operating as CSA to provide an ambient closer. Despite the track’s beatlessness it still maintains the unsettling industrial tone of the rest of the release. Wailing harmonics and glide alongside CSA’s melancholy drones, like the distant echoes of a shuttle long lost in the vastness of space.
- Published
- Feb 26, 2014
- Credits
- Words by Theo Darton-Moore