Kites/Prurient - split LP
(Load)
The last installment of Load's split series featured sounds from the midwest in the form of Hair Police and Viki, but, with this release, the focus moves back toward the northeast and the fertile land that Load calls home. Two one-man outfits make appearances as former tourmates Kites and Prurient each take up a side of this piece of vinyl.
Kites' debut on Load earlier this year found the noisemaker working with electrical mayhem as well as lo-fi folk, but here, the results are all high-voltage noise. Damaged tape splices and squealing, distorted tones make up much of side A of the LP, and though it's divided into individual songs, Kites' half of the album is more like a suite of mechanical dysfunction that a set of songs, per se. The melodic interlude toward the end of the opening title track, "Hidden Family," is a wonderfully warped childlike sentiment, music that sums up much of Kites' approach, noisemaking with a sweet, positive center. This macramé of colorful tones falls somewhere close to the material that made up much of Kites' debut CD, and while it doesn't reach the heights that some of that first album did, it's also superior to some of the disc's weaker points.
Anyone who's seen Prurient live knows the sheer force that his performances can contain, with a tower of amplification looming over the frenzied body of a man whose primal energy is trumped only by the music's piercing volume. White, the second side of the split LP, doesn't necessarily pack the same sort of punch as Dom's live performances, but doing so may very well be impossible. After the initial sludge subsides, the listener is treated to some prime Prurient, with the manipulated feedback and seemingly possessed vocals that are his most effective weapons. The production's a bit too flat to really capture the music's dynamics, but there's no denying the power of this music. The spoken sections of the disc are spooky to a degree that belies that the words being spoken are from a poem written by the artist's mother. It's still rather restrained when compared to Prurient's live performance, but perhaps that's a good thing, for if this LP fully harnessed his full power, it'd likely be the source of numerous noise complaints.
This disc, along with recent releases by Nautical Almanac and Metalux, continues a recent trend by Load to give a more widespread voice to underground noise artists whose releases are often on limited run cassettes and CDrs. While some of the artists Load's released lately have more impressive releases elsewhere, that doesn't diminish the effect this music must have on the uninitiated. When Kites and Prurient tour again, let's hope there is a substantial population of new fans standing in the shadow of Prurient's gear, afraid for their safety, but unable to keep their distance.
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