Aaah, a glorious return to the noise stomping grounds of olde. It's no secret that New Zealand is home to some of the greatest weirdo/narcoleptic/stumbling/damaged noise guitar bands out there-this disc is packed with big names for those in the know-but what's amazing to me is how serene this new compilation is, and despite the number of artists involved, how well the entire set flows together. The lead off track is by Birchville Cat Motel, one of my all time faves and more or less the reason i threw down $21 for this disc (Table of the Elements schwag does not come cheap!) and it's a destroyer-"Skies Crimson Tears" is the name of the track and sure enough it makes good on the Slayer reference by using the backing track of "Raining Blood" as it's palette, upon which Campbell Kneale drops all manner of droney guitar lightning bolts. Alas it's only six minutes, as it's fading out you feel like he was really only just getting started, but hey, a good track is a good track and this one is a pretty great little fix of BCM. Blowfly Saint appears next, turning in some damaged electro folk that sounds like a field recording from the sixties, or maybe a more straightforward version of the Dead C (and where the hell are they on this comp?) if they played lullabies. Not as entrancing or destructive as the BCM track but just as lulling. Greg Malcolm appears next, with one of his two tracks that appear on the set, and both are pretty indicative of what he does-a lot like a really stripped down version of the mighty Pelt, using guitars to make a background of cosmic drone over which he fingerpicks/strums/improvs raga-esque figures, just with a more psychedelic/outsider lean. It's liquefying stuff, just check out some of the records he did for Celebrate Psi Phenomena and let yr head get free (i have a bunch of his records laying around here somewhere...). Pumice turn in two tracks back to back next and it's about as close to real actual pop songcraft as anyone on this collection can get, although by Pumice standards these tracks are on the quieter side of things-but still two gorgeous, fractured pieces of heartache full of razor sharp jarring guitar squiggles and a cloud of murk spread over the top. Gfrenzy turns things around in another direction with their short contribution, which sounds like some sort of weird trip hop filtered through a drip press of folk music, like a cup of coffee made thick and sludgy with sawdust. Probably the track that's furthest out as the source isn't really guitars as much as it is cut/paste computer work and a personal take on US hip-hop. Leighton Craig pulls us under next with his piece for droney keyboards, another track that is far too short in my humble opinion. Extremely gorgeous and soothing pulse tones strung together to create a hymne that's not entirely mournful but not very happy either, almost reminiscent of the stuff Tim Hecker did on his Alien8 recording (i forget the title right now, sorry.) Anthony Milton and Peter Wright close the disc out with a lengthy piece each of good old fashioned New Zealand guitar skronk and drone, as feedback piles on top of itself and makes a thick fat cloud of buzzy hissing drone, each artist seemingly out to prove that they can do what the Dead C do just as well as the masters themselves-i like that the disc closes out this way because even though this collection strives to be a documentation of what's going on in New Zealand right now, the influence of what's been happening there for years is obviously felt by everyone involved on the comp. Great stuff all in all and a good introduction for someone just getting into New Zealand noise (although it's got enough appeal to have completists like me drooling all over it, too!)
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