Half High - Calling Nina (Eiderdown 2014)

The menace is loose - disquiet abounds. peace and love to my friends at Humboldt Relief :)

Light up before you enter this portal. Once within this ghastly, yet beautiful sonic atmosphere, it's difficult for the flowers to combust. I've experienced many states from the catalog of Eiderdown. However, nothing quite matches the visceral dread and spooked synths of Half High. Based in Sydney, Australia, they are among the founding members of Naked on The Vague. Calling Nina was recorded in a space that was once used by scientists to conduct research on the psychokinetic powers of Nina Kulagina. Following her death, it was determined that a poltergeist had taken possession of the area. Subsequent attempts to channel the presence resulted in twelve deaths. Just like Eiderdown suggests, Calling Nina may be an attempt to make contact with her spirit and collaborate with the inherent vibe of the space. When you press play, be prepared; these excerpts taken from live tracks swoop down from desolate, opaque portals suffusing the environment with dense spine-tingling apprehension. 

 Foreboding reverberations and mellow synth are concurrently crystalline and eerie. Cavernous vibrations abound. Something lurks in the copious recesses that dot the shrouded labyrinth. Sputtering and churning, sonic bile is spewed from the icy speakers - one cannot escape the palpable unease. Downcast synths hover and metallic, paranormal vibrations leave a lustrous streak. Electronics pensively ruminate in disturbed air that trembles portentously. Ravaged, disembodied voices skitter on the precipice. On the flipside ethereal drone and buoyant energy devolve into baleful emanations. Ominous pulses are slowly depleted of
vigor, yet, in a torpor, the terror and fright still loom large. Beams of radiant electronics are refracted effervescently. The flipside becomes progressively more sinister and taciturnly unrelenting. Halfway through it reaches what appears to be stasis. Yet, the chill from the speakers suggests otherwise. Deleterious and ashen, wayward oscillations and voices suddenly abate to the influence of mournful synth.  

I'm spooked and can't stop listening!! These folks from Sydney are first-rate sound sculptures. Five minutes into side A, the blinds on my window literally rolled up unprompted - that hasn't occurred in many years. Eiderdown tapes light up my head like few others. Just like Gonzalez & Steenkiste and Ecstatic Cosmic Union before them, Half High grabs the listener's attention by filling the room with their aura. Instead of golden, meditative drones or cosmic exploration, this time around a sinister, ghastly presence hovers. Max Clotfelter's artwork, a staple of these beautiful tapes, does a nice job of matching the vibe. Released in a limited edition of 100 cassettes, Calling Nina may be purchased directly from Eiderdown.   

peace and love, friends :)

Vales - Boreal Head Trip (Skell 015)

pure cannabis indica and Vales gonna scorch that earth! peace and love to my friends at Humboldt Relief :)

 My index finger trembles in anticipation as it approaches the play button. You see, the Overman in this realm manifests as guttural energy that explodes in the barren sky and descends ominously on the quivering listener. This nug has it all for the noise heads in the population. Tones with fangs that split at the seams and douse one in an array of textures. Sometimes it penetrates with acute precision - strident and uncompromising. At other times, the tape is a bubbling morass which oozes preternatural energy. As one tries to find their footing, sonic shrapnel besets the listener. With the tape rolling and consuming vibrations unceasing, it must be fate. I spilled a drop of hash oil on my pants upon being bludgeoned by these next-level apocalyptic tremors and vibrations. The viscous, sticky substance is now ingrained in the fibers of my pants - it's never going to be removed; and the same can be said for the effect on my head of Vales' - the project of Dave Doyen - modular opus on Skell Records, titled Boreal Head Trip. Doyen proceeds in surgical fashion, ripping one's head wide open and unleashing the type of aural therapy that we thrive on here at Honest Bag. Yet, while the scalpel is covered in trichomes, in the other hand resides a conductors baton. Doyen is keenly perceptive, and the attentive listener will come to quickly appreciate the manner in which the passages that comprise each side develop.  

Are you ripped and ready? The deluge beckons. Released in an edition of 100 pro-dubbed tapes, Boreal Head Trip may be purchased directly from Skell Records.

peace and love, friends :)