Theprevious album sleeves are adorned with runes and the records oftendeal with themes of power and war. "Noisient" isn't much different,except that, almost surprisingly, it's not about the Second World Warand it's impact on Europe, but the relatively unexplored (60s hippiebands excluded) Viet Nam war. The first side of this ten inch slab ofwhite vinyl from Old Europa Caf?, "Noisient 1", begins with a distortedand delayed sample of a soldier recounting his experience in SoutheastAsian jungles, and moves into a wet grind of sputtering analog soundsand repeated loops. Compared to most Folkstorm tracks it's slow andquiet, lacking some of the frenetic and discordant moments of the cds."Noisient 2" also begins quietly, with rumbling dark drones, and paleinfrequent beats covered with surges of static and a repeated,indecipherable vocal sample. Throughout "Noisient 2" you're waiting forthe inevitable payoff: the climax of a pure wall of noise, and ofcourse, you get it. The drones give way to analog vibrations that hidevocal samples and shift toward the logjam of noise and growled vocals.But again, it's almost quiet, lacking the impact of earlier Folkstormmaterial, and not quite what you expect from an album dealing with war.Nordvargr stopped recording as Folkstorm fairly recently, so thisrecord is the beginning of the end of this project. In the meantimehe's moved on to his own 205 Recordings and the Toroidh dark ambientproject, of which "Noisient" seems to be the perfect precursor. -
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