Review: Kiras

It seems that Lithuanian noise label Terror gains momentum. This is already the fourth release. This time it's completely new, unexpected tape that I haven't heard of ever before. This is the joint project of two Lithuanian noise fatties called Volksmorg. Mykolas from Cloe Goelach/Body Cargo and Levas from Pogrom/Alkis įšalusiai Aušrai/Budrūs and many more great projects. Both musicians are good one by one so there are high hopes for their joint project too.
Tape comes in simple, neat box without any artsy shit. Cover is printed on nice glossy paper - nothing too much to talk about and it's good. Minimum information is placed inside, just big colorful photos of retarded faces. Nice photo where a guy sucks cock for a bum, couple of lunatics and all in all it smells more of noisecore and fuck-everything-and-all aesthetics than some sort of idea. There are also huge amount of ironic and not that ironic thanks and inspirations listed and on the cover itself - musicians, inserting themselves in the middle of all these reatards. Photo was made in the studio - two big guys with a little amount of gear (with the brick among it) and a pile of empty alcohol bottles. So I smile and put the tape into the audio system.
And the recorded material is not that bad. No joy and it sounds truly good. The sounds is suitable for the background. Almost static low humming with the main wall becoming almost dark ambient. Maybe too filthy and distorted for it to be called ambient, but the mood is similar. There are no tracks as such. Both sides are endless, monotonous stream of hollow noise with background happenings: some sort of echoes, samples, excerpts, clangs. It seems that the main mass of sound was left static and noisers went on to make all kinds of background sounds. There is some sort of feedback here and there, maybe some contact microphone was used or so, it's truly hard to say because the boundaries between sounds are all burried in this droney wall which is the main body of the record. Finally the stream get colder, the carried body is rolled over and the main knob is slightly twisted, but it's done so lightly that it still leaves you doubting. Background is once more made of feedbacks, sirens, beeping - cold misty sounds of one cellar in unknown metropolis. The first side is like that - without much change, without any hysteria, just pleasant to listen filthy tape noise that you can drown in and even forget that you are listening to something.
While I change sides, I notice one more funny thing. Instead of signing A and B, the sides of it are marked as a container or alcohol. One side - big bottle of beer, another - bottle of vodka. I'd say that beer is side A, but I suppose that depends on your habits and traditions.
The next side is the same shitty lofi noise though the texture is different. Clanging of chain strikes my ear right away. On this side the wall is more like a distorted loop. Maybe harsher than the first one, but very pleasantly mixed and far from fierce. It's dark and frightening and not openly aggressive. The main distinction of this side - metal clangings in the background, sound of chain and all in all, this side is more specific. The mood remains the same so the best word perhaps would be that this side is more open. The foreground loop is industrial one and I can't do anything to myself - it reminds me of functioning factory machine. Drunk, pointless and dirty industrial nightmare when you strike the head of the man with the metal chain. It's just that while listening to this tape it seems that you are not the one strikind or being striked, but the one observing it from the side. You are the witness of a cold, endless ritualistic execution. Later on the foreground changes and some sort of beeping becomes louder. Noise bubbles with powerful feedbacks and waves of noises when suddenly I think that most likely this record was recorded via tape recorded without any mixer with some shitty microphone and that's why such quality.
All in all - great record. Such sort of noise that does not irritates you and you might listen to it again and again while doing dishes or making dinner at home. It's more difficult for me to associate the sound with the funny cover art. I personally interpret it as the overall absurdity of drunkness and the power of that pointlessness. Everyone who had ever drank for three days in a row and then suffered hangover, lasting for three days, know what kind of nightmare I'm talking about - full of paranoia, fucked-up dreams, shivering and promises that you are never drinking again. And this is just nonsenses of a drunk person. For some reason after a week, sober and happy you are returning back to the shop and buying one more liter of alcohol. It means that you need it. It means that it must be like that. Volksmorg.

Format: CS
Released: 2012
Label: terror
Edition: 100