Sparse loops of glitchy sound appear and are soon subsumed by more lush ambience, with a noisiness that is nonetheless not edgy. However the glitchy loops are present and make themselves more prominent, creating a contrast between softly percussive, almost arrhythmic sounds that echo through your ears and the glitchy sounds which have an aesthetic of error. Somewhere in the background loops of clacking sound become harsher and threaten to overwhelm what is present. Mechanical noises, put through what sounds like ring modulation are interspersed with occasional musical tones.
What sounds like a guitar put through many effects which make it sound distant, distorted, and muffled makes itself known to the listener, and the other sounds take a back seat to the drone of this instrument, with harsher sounds occasionally coming out of the mix. Everything becomes distant, yet at the same time fully present. And then the guitar stops, and plays a few notes. Ambient effects laden guitar becomes the next part of the narrative of noise and music, which communicates obscurity through its distance. This continues for some time, allowing the atmosphere to coalesce around the mind, fill it with the obscurity which is salient in its wandering notes.
As the atmosphere meanders through the mind, it creates a meditative mood which is conducive to serious thought and prolonging the moments of blankness which are between thoughts, as the seriousness disappears into the mists of time, and thought is forgotten in the calmness of a certain species of repose which this music can induce.
There are what could be interpreted as recording errors that distort the calmness of the atmosphere, cutting through the calmness like a knife chopping off the top of a waveform. This continues, and then the sound fades out.
On the second track, the aesthetic of error continues as the sound clicks and distorts itself into the mind, a two note loop utilizing some instrument that cannot be discerned is overlaid with clicks and glitches and then a reverb and delay-laden instrument makes itself known and becomes prominent, intertwining itself with the aforementioned two note loop. What sounds like a cymbal, but probably is not, like a ghost wanders into the mix. And another instrument subtly introduces itself and then fades into the mix like someone who raises their hand and then puts it down in embarrassment.
This combination of music and error-laden loops continues for some time, and gradually the errors become more pronounced in the mix, as the instruments start to loop faster, and the clicks become very obvious and demand the attention of the listener, as if saying “Look…entropy!” Then, the clicks mostly disappear, and the music loops continue unabated, gradually morphing over time to give more prominence to sound that seems like a cymbal. Then, an overpowering distorted instrument comes in like a foghorn that’s close by, and then becomes less prominent, like a ship sailing away from the listener. Then, everything fades out, and the music is over.
https://invisiblecityrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-pile (Name your price, for charity)
