Author: john ingram

It’s been a long time coming, but I felt that the time was finally right for me to give SIGHUP a proper review. Digging through my archives, I found end of. There are newer albums, but I don’t think I’ve given this one the attention it deserves, and that has been my loss.

SIGHUP has long been, in my opinion, the undisputed King of Drone, and this release does absolutely nothing to diminish that reputation. The album opens with a luscious choral drone that wafts almost angelically, stupefying the listener before shocking them back to their senses with an abrupt end. Afterwards the albums shifts gears and moves into the haunting, medium density dark ambient piece “saints brimful”, showcasing a facet of SIGHUP that is decidedly darker and bleaker. Not content to settle down yet, the album shifts gears again, into the Edison Moon inspired “city heart”, whose sampled melody is superbly drenched in layers of atmosphere and accented by subtle hints of noise. The title track has us revisiting the bleakness of “saints brimful”, but with the masterful addition of a very low key drone that hollows out the darkness, clearing room for the burgeoning march of electroacoustic noise that swells in through the track. The album closes with the brief, but beautiful, “coda”, further exemplifying SIGHUP’s mastery over all things drone.

While not my favorite SIGHUP album, it is absolutely a must hear for fans of any of the aforementioned genres.

[Rating:5/5]

Digging back into the Amduscias Records catalog, I discovered the third Nyctallz release, Nyctalus Noctula. The album kicks off with a shrieking, piercing noise tone that could have set the mood for an intense sonic adventure, but unfortunately the album never really lived up to that expectation. Nyctalus Noctula is more of a loping exercise in minimal synth noodling, accenting noisier elements of synthesizes and eschewing any semblance of musical propriety. There’s very little in terms of track evolution, depth or atmosphere, and in general it lacks either the sophistication to make it quality ambient or the brutality to make it quality noise.

It didn’t make me cry…
[Rating:2/5]

The first album on the block for this week’s reviews is Daxscapes II by DANADAX. If you’ve been lurking this site long enough, the name DANADAX should sound familar. The old Intelligent Machinery catalog boasted two phenomenal early releases, Trips Into Places Unknown and Consciousness in Shifts of Decay. I missed the first incarnation of Daxscapes, but this album picks up right where earlier releases left off with more explorations into creepy noise. This album is less organic and more digital, but still manages to invoke an atmosphere of tension and eeriness that seems to be the forte of Curtis D. Cousins and whomever else he recruits for this project.

There’s definitely a maturity here that was missing in earlier releases; a greater sense of restraint and ability to conceptualize evolution over longer pieces.

[Rating:4/5]

One thing you don’t see much in the noise world is a remix album, so I’m always a little curious when one crops up. Such is the case with Braakland Nul, by Norss. Included on this release are the original composition “Braakland” and two subsquent remixes performed by the artist himself. Overall the album is very dark and very minimal, and the innocuous nature of the tracks lend it well to background listening for most any activity. Nothing spectacular going on here, but occasionally a long and subtle ambience fits the mood.

[Rating:3.5/5]