Up From the Underground Be the Hammer's " Tangled Mass"

And now for something different from out normal fare. In fact this will make some of the more experimental bands we cover here seem like radio pop. The Belgian noisemakers that comprise Be the Hammer are crafting some sounds of trippy madness on their debut album. They employ a Theremin that squeals as it is tortured. The frequencies these guys tamper with makes me think that if you play this too loudly there is a good chance you will get abducted by aliens. So this album is best listened to wearing a tin foil hat with smoking bong in hand. If you plan on running a haunted house next Halloween stop what you are doing and go down load this album as background music. " Rat Catcher" is on a different wavelength than the first piece. It sounds more like a transmission from the void being received. Wavelengths are perhaps the best way to think of some of these compositions.

You may have noticed we have abandoned musical terms here, because if you go into this thinking of it in that way not only are you missing the point but in a entirely different dimension, as this is more sonic performance art. It is an album, which is fair to refer this as since my "Sounds of the Haunted House " was also not only an album, but my first album as a child, I am sure this explains a lot in regards to the darker tastes of this blog. Dark is an adjective that can be used to describe this, however another would be desolate. I have mild synesthesia, so when I hear this I see and feel a desolate landscape much like the world Eraser Head is set in.

"Shape Shifter' feels like it is just the natural transition from " Rat Catcher" almost like they are conjoined twins. "Skull Cracker" is not as abrasive as the title suggests, I was expecting some sort of harsh industrial noise, and instead it's rather minimalist white noise. "Beast" has a laboratory bubbling to it with distant wails and samples lying in the thick of the mix just above the buzz that drones over wax sound like the blare of a trumpet until it moves higher in the mix and becomes more discernible as a Theremin. If you want something heavy on the ambiance where instruments are not played in the conventional sense as much as they are manipulated as sonic tools, then this is an audio art exhibit you will appreciate, as long as you have a high threshold for noise and drone. This is being released on Required Rate of Return.