Contagious Orgasm – Spill Drop – 3.5/5
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Ok, so an album I can see people either loving or loathing. To call this anything but unique would be a grave mistake, where most ambient tries to provide an atmosphere, this succeeds in doing so but at the cost of song structure. This doesn’t feel like technical music, as even that has a discernable beat pattern, instead were confronted with a serious of bizarre noises, used in a manner which is both disturbing and unpredictable.
I said before that the technical element in Afflicted lends a sense of tension and unpredictability. This may well be the modern equivalent, going from a quiet piece with clearly heard footsteps on a gravely path, you can hear the grinding of the boots as he paces back and forth, the sudden short screeching sounds before the boots begin to walk away. You hear a TV turn on in the distance, a quieter scurrying sound, a dripping in the background, weird beetle sounds, a modem-type sound in the background and so on.
And on top of all this is an eerie score almost an industrial black sound creating further tension, enhancing the atmosphere produced and creating a truly disturbing tone. This becomes more and more prevalent as the album progresses until the final climactic point, as though the severity of your situation is becoming more apparent.
This all essentially works to create a true horror film feel. The lack of any visual leaves you in the dark, relying on what you can hear, and the beauty of this method is everyone will interpret the sounds presented in a different manner, associate it with different things and come to different conclusions. It immerses you in a sense of realism that rarely occurs in music.
But there is one major drawback to this. It is really not easy to appreciate the level of work that has gone into this. It requires your undivided attention, your focus and concentration. If you simply have it on in the background, and lose concentration the tension and build-up its created will have been lost, and it won’t impact you in the same manner. Now, I like to think I can take pride in my ability to focus, but this took me a good number of tries to truly appreciate. It is this monumental flaw, combined with the fact that, without concentration this does just sound like a bizarre, unmelodious collection of weird sounds and noises, and quite frankly isn’t very interesting. It requires constant thought, and total immersion for it to be of much interest to the listener.
Once again I have stumbled upon an artist who has managed to create something bizarre and unique. If you think you have the capacity to devote your undivided attention to this piece for its 50 minute length, then this is most definitely worth your time.
Highlights: Melancholy Spiders, Harvest Song, Now YOU are in deep trouble
By T. Bawden
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