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FB001: Wolf Eyes / The Skull Defekts Format: LP, white vinyl Sold out INFORMATION: A dark split LP battle featuring noise gigants Wolf Eyes and experienced Swedish newcomers The Skull Defekts. Wolf Eyes needs no further introduction, and neither would The Skull Defekts, had you already known the musical history of these men, ranging from Union Carbide Productions and Kid Commando to Alvars Orkester, as well as Anticimex, Cortex, and Lucky People Center. Hear feedback and rhythm merge and/or collide, slowly. A recorded by Wolf Eyes. Links: Wolf Eyes, The Skull Defekts. TRACKLIST: A. Wolf Eyes - Negative Space REVIEWS: With so many CDs, CD-Rs, LPs, lathe cuts and cassettes under their belt, it’s tempting to conclude that Wolf Eyes couldn’t possibly produce new material with anything like the same clout their early recordings delivered. But this would be misguided. Hot on the heels of their superb River Slaughter double LP comes this split with Gothenburg’s The Skull Defekts, which reinforces the theory that Wolf Eyes are morphing into something even more miraculous and dangerous than their previous incarnation. “Negative Space” taps into their more minimalist guise with electronic spark-plug glitching crunched alongside guitar feedback extensions that sound like talons being pulled across amplified metal sheets. On the flip, The Skull Defekts worry their “Feedback Between Skulls While Sitting In A Room” like a terrier with a rat, the Alvin Lucier inspired title partly mirroring the electronic minimalism of the Wolf Eyes side, though their attack is more controlled and focused. // Edwin Pouncey, The Wire #270, August 2006 Ah yes... This one’s a contender... A gorgeous milky-white split LP between current teen-titans Wolf Eyes (trio lineup of Olson/Connolly/Young) and up-and-coming skandi-skorn unit Skull Defekts (here working as a duo of Joachim “iDEAL/Kid Commando/Alvars Orkester” Nordwall and Henrik “Traditional Arrangements of Feedback” Rylander...) Wolf Eyes side: Mid-high oscillations encasing some fine, subtle sheet-metal/delay-pedal spazz-out... Slowly the goat’s horns begin braying off in the distance before the bottom drops out and it’s all controlled feedback arc-gestures & the occasional click (are those... CD skips? on a record?) The word I would use to describe the piece overall would have to be mellow - not one normally associated with W.E. But damn if it isn’t one of the most carefully considered bits in their discomnibus... Skull Defekts side: A slown-down, almost dancehall “beat” opens the side with occassional harsh noise punctuations (in fact, if you play this at 45 rpm you could probably mix it w/ some Bug riddims) - super minimal/repetitive & engrossing track, reminiscient of a noisier version of the first Various Artists 12” on FatCat. Aside from the filtered feedback/noise, this really wouldn’t have been out of place on a Mille Plateaux LP ca. 1998. Plus, i’m using conjecture to glom that the S.D. title is a loose Lucier reference, and that’s never a bad signifier... Yes, it’s limited. Yes, the Wolf Eyes side is good, especially if you’re feel the not-just-totally-full-on-harsh-noise phase they’re currently going through. Yes, the S.D. side is very good. […] // Keith Fullerton Whitman, MMS Wolf Eyes side is a beautiful slice of low-level hypnosis - a suggestive, weirdly tonal comb through some of the territories sketched by Olson on the Dead Machines/John Wiese split, with a distant arc of drone-melody caught in magnets of delay-doofed metal percussion, garbled vocal codes and cracks of gong and cymbal. Totally evocative. Skull Defekts side is creepy minimal electronic pulse, with the thud of a drum program cutting slices through static-charged air. Parts of this sound exactly like Japanese post-TG thunkers Tolerance covering The Faine Jade's “It Ain't True” - how the fuck did that happen? Highly recommended. // Volcanic Tongue
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