I'm getting back to this release over and over again every several months. There are such albums that acts as a drug - you try it and then you know that some time in the future you'll have to get to it again. One of such albums is Bulk - heavy, massive and wall-like CD, released via Unrest productions and Silken Tofu. With every release of his, Shift presents a different and unique approach to sound. Bulk realizes the idea of sound weight, intensity and brutality. No subtlety or melancholy, just aggressive, multilayered drone/noise wall. Taking a glance at the cover of this CD is enough to catch the mood already, where an example of brutalist architecture is pictured (now demolished). It is said to be the ugliest building in UK - Tricorn Centre. Brutalism lived its golden age in countries from Soviet block too, so perhaps this is the reason why this album for a person from here has special meaning and not just an aesthetic of sound. Seeing as former centers of culture and entertainment stands still and abandoned, counting their last days and next to them transparent glass offices are rising, you imperceptibly start to compare them. An impression of temporariness, insignificance and vanity that is being radiated from glamour and sterile new buildings versus oppressive majesty, silence and power, diluted with sadness that glows from massive concrete monuments. I don't want to get too deep into philosophical meditation about the present so I'll leave this theme for spontaneous digestion. Bulk is quite often associated with harsh noise wall and I myself mentioned the term wall above, but in this hardly noticeable movement of noise monoliths, there is dynamics and evolution and that's what I like most in wall-like releases. When it seems that the sound is nothing more but a static wall, though when you get deeper - you can hear the masses moving, distant highly effected voice, callous synth lines and all that is so densely layered that the final result is a huge, massive wall of sound with hidden and disguised details. This CD doesn't tire you, you can listen to it over and over again. I'd say it's even energizing for every time you relisten it, you find some hidden details you haven't noticed before or lost sounds that weren't caught by your ears etc. This release is a beauty of massiveness and brutality that has a tendency to decay for it's much simpler to go sweet and easy way. In architecture, music and so on. I highly recommend this CD for those to whom the described vision is acceptable.

Format: CD
Released: 2009
Label: Unrest productions, silken tofu
Edition: 350