THANK YOU DAVE SEGAL FOR THIS EXCELLENT REVIEW!!!
“Seattle-based experimental label Lithic is in the business of excavating the Pacific Northwest’s subterranean sonic strata for adventurous specimens. Its newest discoveries appear on the expansive nine-track compilation Realms and Ruins Volume I.
Lithic boss Brent Carpenter has gathered a solid range of sounds here. Undular Bore’s subliminal aural catastrophes abut Hidden Gateways’ Manuel Göttsching-like kosmische guitar sighs. Noisepoetnobody’s “Anxiety Dreams” is a serious nerve-scraper that manifests the title, as well as a nightmare triggered by a miasma of whirring machinery and distorted big-cat snarls. Former Master Musicians of Bukkake guitarist Jim Davis generates a wonderfully eerie drone derived from what sounds like a violin fed through a bandsaw and a Theremin being played by a ghost with delirium tremens. It’s a hell of an illusion.
The double LP’s longest piece comes from the illustrious Thomas Andrew Doyle. At 12:40, it’s a genuinely traumatic rumble of vast cinematic scope—light years beyond most noise artists’ efforts with regard to dynamics and timbre. Said it before, will say it again: TAD should be scoring big-budget films that put the fear of [insert your deity of choice here] in you.
(blouseusa) is somesurprises drummer/guitarist Benjamin Thomas-Kennedy’s most interesting solo project. Here he combines powerful, oddly metered drumming with a bizarre melody sculpted from what seems like a synthesizer whose circuits have been dowsed in magic-mushroom tea. The doubled-up vocalizing between BTK and an unknown individual adds to the disturbing aural drama galavanting through the stereo field. A stunning stumper of a track that’ll have you glancing over your shoulder in paranoia.”
-Dave Segal The Stranger
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