Friday 9 December 2011

Shiver


At the start of the month I read about the Italian project Shiver on the (excellent) Dead Formats blog. Damien of Dead Formats was writing about the cassette "They Will Feed On Us." This is what he wrote:
"Pretty creepy stuff. Starts out very minimal with a sparse, lo fi loop. It then builds up with the sounds of crashing and possibly human wails. It has this vintage sound i have been loving that is similar to Pregnant Spore. Where the sound almost feels like it was created in the 1960s but this was recorded this year. The tape continues with grinding concrete, tuned down guitars and short burst of feedback. It's pretty awesome and very hypnotic. I am already impressed with this Italian label, Diazepam. I believe they are related to the great Ur from Italy. They have just started releasing tapes so I would recommend picking these up right away. This cassette comes in a burlap pouch with some actual bones inside. Eerie".
The cassette has to be heard.
"They Will Feed On Us" is a C-30, and comes in two parts. "Parts 1 & 2". "1" starts off with a sound that makes me think that the tape is chewing up inside the machine, or my tapeheads are fucked...slipping and chewing...the effect is looped into a dark wall of noise (DWN), a cacophony of evil before it cuts to silence, and then the sound of a single cymbal...to be joined by a sonic rumble and the voices of the dead. It all ends with beautifully panned ampnoise - the amp sounding like a Roland Jazz Chorus 50. "2" has temple bells and saxophone blurts weaving in and out of a mesmering bass guitar pattern. Riff, for the want of a better word! The piece slows to the point of scratching and blowing of various metals and bone until it builds into a(nother) cacophony of bass and screaming vocals. The whole finale is not too far from the sound of "early" Bodychoke....think "Mindshaft".

Damien was correct. The sound harks back to the early 1980's (not 1960's...unless .... ), the sound of Nekrophile Records and Ain Soph and Metgumbnerbone and also the recent Mazuraan project of Lee Stokoe. It is all in there.
Recommended.
Available from Diazepam, or direct from Shiver - visit shivernoise.blogspot.com it costs roughly 5 euro and my copy came faster than a Christmas card from Hartlepool!

No comments:

Post a Comment