Striations – Keepsakes LP Fusty Cunt 2019
Off the back of my introduction to this US industrial/noise/power electronics project (via the Vietnamization DCD – reviewed here), Keepsakes comes as the latest album from Striations. The first thing is note is the packing, which has all the hallmarks of classic over the top DIY approach to presentation. Here a think and weighty vinyl floor tile has been stencilled with the project name and attached to a spray painted LP cover. Further housed in a yellow dust cover, the whole packaging is sealed with an obi-strip made from police tape.
On the musical front, album opener Unseen (Body Dump), wastes no time and leaps straight in with deep, distant loops blended with mid-to higher toned noise. With an elevating trajectory it charts crudely constructed, loose shuddering noise and rabid flanged vocals, and when bleeding directly into Transgression I, the swirling and shuddering noise takes a step up in intensity. Keepsakes comes next and mines a sound of metallic bass rumble, programmed rhythmic pulse and jumbled noise, which squares off against a deep metallic production and hollowed out and howled vocal barrage. Rounding out the first side is Odontology, which is a short instrumental noise drone, where a short serial killer related news report sample plays out as the Side A outro. The same news report sample then continues on Side B, prior to Manifestation kicking in with queasy dive-bombing atonal synth lines, muted and modulated distortion, searing high-pitch noise and flanged semi-buried vocals. Modern Predator differs by making great use of rhythmic revving distortion and loosely looped scrap metal recordings, and again with the intense vocals which are flange treated beyond recognition. Fantastic stuff. The quite short piece Transgression II features greater tonal breath by dialling down on the higher pitched elements, and features a deeply echoed metallic soundscape. For the final track Definition of Abuse it is introduced with a TV talk show interview, and when the track gets going it is perhaps the album standout, with slow laboured bass pulse, fluttering mid-toned noise and treated vocals floating above. In a word, excellent.
Clearly Keepsakes is both a shorter and more fiercely direct album than Vietnamization. While there may less immediately obvious thematic fodder than Vietnamization (i.e. extensive documentary samples), the short vocals snippets and track titles provide clear indicators of thematic preoccupations. Limited to a mere 100 copies, this is perhaps more a byproduct of the work required to construct the packaging, but musically speaking Keepsakes certainly warrants a bigger edition.
noise receptor 