I have
already ranted about what I think of compilation focusing
on artists from one country only, so let's spare some bytes
and not repeat why I think that it does more disservice than
goods to the bands. Anyway, "Like music to their ears vol.1"
takes the same concept as "Q.F.G." and gets out more or less
at the same time, but instead of being released in a glossy
triple digipack and going everywhere music-wise, it stas focused
on the noisy, "dark" and atmospheric material, with 14 tracks
on a CDR limited to 100 copies.
It begins
with a nice, and rather electronic sounding track by Rudra
Vena (who, like Stelladrine and Tin.Rp, also appeared on "Q.F.G."),
but gets quickly more ambient, first with the calm stretched
soundscapes of Hirochimiq, and then with
the subdued noise of Dusk Of Hope. This overall tone,
relaxed but tense and gritty, is prominant on the whole compilation,
which constantly oscillates the decidedly gritty (Mourmansk
150, Asphalt Leash) and the more balanced, hypnotic material
(Stelladrine, Giscard Le Survivant. This all ends up with
the feeling (surprising judgeing the overall loudness and
aggressivity of most of Mechanoise Labs's past releases) that
"Like music to their ears vol.1" has gathered the calmest
tracks from a bunch of usually violent noise experimentalists.
Not giving up the noise completely, a lot of these tracks
have more of a slow, numbing effect, and have lost in intensity
what they have gained in accessibility.
I would
be hard pressed to pick up some tracks on this disc, as if
the compilation appeared as relatively coherent, none of the
pieces appeared to stand out. A good thing for the sake of
the projet, it however didn't really motivate me to check
out more any of the participating act. However, I have to
admit that the whole thing is well done, with a precise direction,
which would have me say that it might appeal more to people
into that precise genre than to me.
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