Wolf Eyes - Slicer
(Hanson)
This is CD reissue of a 2001 cassette released on Wolf Eyes' own American Tapes label. The prolific group has over forty releases to their name since their inception in 1997, most self-released and on cassette. Slicer represents the second CD reissue of an earlier album, following Bulb's 2002 reissue of Dread. The disc, over seven untitled tracks, shows a gentler, more restrained side of Wolf Eyes than those familiar with the trio might expect. On Slicer, John Olson, Nathan Young, and Aaron Dilloway retreat from the punishing power electronics with which they've made their name, and, instead, utilize lower volumes and less abrasive sound to create music that's as challenging and menacing as always.
With the usual collection of instrumentation (electronics, tapes, horns, and voice), Wolf Eyes sculpt tracks that, without the group's usual racket, must prove to be interesting and formidable enough to achieve a similar effect. Sans feedback, with more in the way of repetitive rhythms, drones, and, aghast, even what could pass at times for IDM beats, Wolf Eyes' creations on Slicer are no less nihilistic or musically aggressive than usual. The long, plaintive bleats propelled from the groups' saxophones, electronically altered and delayed, serve as the glue in many of the disc's compositions, while in others, the static of an ambient electronic fog becomes the canvas on which Wolf Eyes do their work. Beats, when existent, are often simple and blunt, swarmed upon by distorted electronics and insect-like buzzing. The best moments of the disc are its most barren: mournful tomes of saxophone or electronics being attacked by scattered clusters of modulated, reversed, and fuzz-covered noises. The eleven-minute fourth track is perhaps the best example of the aforementioned style, and, thankfully, the group seems to have a sense for which pieces deserve more time to ferment, and the longer tracks on the disc avoid becoming stagnant or annoying.
There's much to be said for the sheer power in the sound masses that Wolf Eyes can create, and, in that sense, Slicer can seem lacking. Nothing here pummels the ears like other Wolf Eyes material can, but, its unadorned and comparably light-weight density still provide music that attains the level of shuddering electronic bedlam that we've come to expect from the group. Easy-listening, Wolf Eyes style, is still far from easy, relaxing, or gentle.
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