Sick Llama & Ben Hellhall - KillDevilHills |Editions Brokenresearch|

Man, days don't get much better than this. Got home from work and opened my mailbox to see a brown envelope staring at me, in it a few of the latest releases on the Editions Brokenresearch label. The label ran by Graveyards' Hans Buetow and Ben Hall. Amongst the treasures this 3" cd-r, a duet between Fag Tapes' Heath Moerland (Sick Llama) and Ben 'Hell' Hall himself. I promise I'll talk about the others pretty soon but this 3" fits perfectly for a late night review.

Two tracks on this pocketsize monster, untitled as far as Winamp can see, no tracktitles on the neat package either so what we have are two anonymous noisejams shot through with shards of graveyard percussion. Who the fuck needs a title then anyway, right? Track one is the longest, containing ten minutes of noise boogie and with the immaculate touch of four experienced claws it turns into a entrancing noisemare. Hall positions his fierce clattering immediately upfront while Moerland adds restrained bubbles of highwired screeches. There's serious tension inbetween sounds, the rattling of chains foreboding some kind of morbid torture ritual and whilst a sampled voice speaks in tongues the pace threatens to pick up again but never really does. It's the sound of playing in a field full of terrifying boobytraps, bumping into rusty nails every once in a while, cutting foreheads while a trail of dripping blood marks your footsteps.

The second track builds up as slowly as the first. The bruised heartbeat of dying effects in the background, sawing drones on the surface circling around a core of decaying avant-noise structures. To top it all off, there's a way too small portion of fucked up reed action. Creaking, grinding and gnashing bacteria littered breath until it ends and boy does it end too soon. I'd be psyched to hear a more fully realised effort from these sick bastards, this just leaves me hungry for much, much more.