CAGES

I am going to Milwaukee today for my annual exercise in consumption and self abuse under the guise of volunteering at a bicycle race, and I hope to spend some time with some of the people involved in this project while I am there. CAGES combine transfixing noise/soundscapes with haunting female vocals that urge comparisons to an older, more resigned and sadder DIAMANDA GALAS. The music on this tape is garnered from various live performances in Buffalo, New York during 2006-08, and they often take on an ambient quality - while "Psalm To Mother" is an inwardly violent and cacophonous piece, the tracks that follow spend more time in the background than they do in your conscious aural field. "Burial" can sometimes slip completely by me when I listen to Anti-Realist (I think this is my favorite song on the tape, it just requires...demands...undivided and intense attention), and I'm jarred back to a harsh reality by "Cavern" to close the release. The harshness of CAGES is shrouded by their calm but erratic exterior - far from a crew of artsy noisemakers, emotion and turmoil permeate these songs. To listen to CAGES and not feel something is to simply not feel, and if that is the case then I feel for you...or maybe you just need to listen harder. And louder, these songs are better at maximum volume.

ANTI REALIST

Released in early 2011 by Död Universe, purveyor of many fine slabs of thought provoking noise.