fakejazz.com

I've had a bit of insomnia lately; nothing major, but more nights than necessary I find myself lying at bed at some ungodly hour, my mind racing out of control. In a perfect world, when I find myself wide awake at 4 AM, I could pick up an instrument and not just pound away but torment it, creating a loud outpouring of sound to get all those nagging thoughts out of my mind so I finally can get some rest. I have a feeling that a similar sort of restlessness is behind The Holy See - a Tarentel side project with two thirds of the band (Ledesma and Jim Redd). The album starts with an unholy electronic shitstorm, opening up a portal to hell and getting out of the way as devils and demons explode through it. Buzzing keyboards rub against humming walls of sound as distorted vocals whisper foul secrets. While the harsh industrial sounds probably has more to do with White House or Wolf Eyes, The Skaters came to mind first as its catharsis is similarly humongous. This 13 minute long first track is followed by 7 shorter experiments, exploring fractured beats, crushing and piercing Merzbow-ian guitar, and demented frequency modulators - while there are a few "breaks," it is largely harsh and confrontation. The album closes with two other long tracks. The next-to-last track is actually almost comforting. A bass rumble fills most of the song, sounding like the purr of a lioness (fed through broken electronics), subtly shifting in frequency to create a (relatively) soft drone out of the harsh electronic sounds. The last track, lasting 21 minutes, finally gives the duo time to experiment with beats and explore how all their knob twiddling can morph their sounds into 4/4 pulses and subtle stutter steps, reminding me some of Mouthus' more beat-driven moments. Maybe next time I find myself unable to sleep, I'll just listen to Snowing Ash to clear my mind - while it may be too harsh for repeated listenings, it's the perfect prescription for that type of situation. This release's packaging is also the best of the 3 Root Strata CDRs. While the other two come in minimally decorated cardboard sleeves, Snowing Ash comes attached to a wooden shingle (via a glued-on spindle), with a brushstroke or two on each side.

Holy See at Amazon & Insound