Various - Melt flac mp3 download

"Hymn L'Amour" by BEE QUEEN opens play - a seemingly simple thing which clanks about on clubfoot sound chunks while DDLs feedback in the background, sounding like a more stark, colour-bleached STOCKHAUSEN with definite Industrial leanings. "Fragment 1" is a remix from ANTONYM's first cassette album - initially just a backing track, this is a sort of machine rhythm, a benign factory lullaby of blasting samples & pitch-shifted delay. ANOTHER HEADACHE have advanced their distinctive sound for "Russolo" with a much more composed piece. The warping LFO sounds are still there, but are now merely a part of a warm, atmospheric track which might be described as a rhythm, although it has a sombre factory ambience. It might stand up well as a film soundtrack theme - and thinking about it, they have already contributed music to film - is this the way ahead? DEBBIE JAFFE's MASTER/SLAVE RELATIONSHIP comes next with the gaseous, off-white-noise "The Long Whip Of Persuasion", a massive blast of constantly battering wind over which the young lady whispers her S & M lyrics - it has a draining, powerful sound although structure is kept to an absolute minimum. "Drift 4" is by LEE RANALDO - building on percussive sounds with long reverb decays, this builds up into a complex series of amorphous noises, some thick & tactile, others gossamer & ephemeral - it reminds me of a more harsh version of the ambient tracks from the LEAR/RENTAL album. Our old friends :ZOVIET*FRANCE: offer us the strange "Soft & Close By Me" - built on a constant slow bass drum beat - akin to "Hamburger Lady" - this swells up into a quietly drifting cloud of half-seen images & ghostly fragments of sounds, half-heard images hidden within. dROME offer us the soulful wail of "Millbrook", which warps up & down like a colder version of ANOTHER HEADACHE while someone speaks over the top (a little like TIM LEARY to me). Seemingly innocuous, it has that chill atmosphere of confession found on certain parts of THE SWANS' more recent albums. HUSK - an offshoot of SPLINTERED bring us "Lodestar", a wild swell of sound beneath which drums keep their slow, constant beat & high shrieks of frequency scrawls wire tracery over the top. WHITESLUG bring us the fuzzy, grizzled distortion of "Shit Eater" - a chunky, indistinct thing with a Garage Rock underbeat, weighed down by the mass of noise above it. EARTH MOTHER FUCKER bring us "I Fuck Therefore I Am", sounding not unlike early SPLINTERED with loads of unusual guitar sounds including a twangy thing which gives it a particularly distinctive motif. It's Rock 'n' Roll given an adrenaline/acid O.D. & let loose in a studio. One of the more memorable tracks on the album. THE HANATARASH give us "2,000 Amplified Sunshine", a screaming, shrieking smorgasbord of feedback & distortion laid over a bed of hardly discernible drumming. Discordant but ever active, this paints it's picture in a thousand shades of mud. "The Reward Of Cruelty" comes from HYDRA, an even more intense blizzard of white distorted sound, this shrill cacophony seeks out no shape or form, but powers along on it's gale force muscle. THE GEROGERIGEGEGE bring us "Anal Beethoven", another amorphous blast furnace of sound, becoming a more structured thing with yelling voice & thudding drums, but still relies on the massed blast of noise to push it along. MERZBOW comes up with an altogether more interesting sound. Having explored the area of blasting noise well over the years, they have come up with a much more complex series of images. The sound's still the same - dissonant, harsh, metallic & deafening - but the structure's far more interesting. Called "Suzunne Erica Is Sunohara Yuri", this ever-changing composition is an impressive example of Pure Noise taken a step further. FAT HACKER close the album with "Sad Song", returning us to a more logical musical place. It builds on powerful Punk-like thrash-out sounds & electronics into a distinctive little track.All in all an interesting album, often very stark & having much of it's possible colour blasted away by the violent strength of much of this music. A challenging compilation which does seem to work.Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.