Search - Russell Haswell, Masami :: Satanstornade

Brutal and Beautiful

Nathan Humpal | WI | 11/30/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Anyone coming into this release expecting Warp's usual IDM or even their more experimental recent offerings (such as Autechre's Confield and Gantz Graf and Aphex Twin's Drukqs) will probably initially regard this compact disc as defective. Certainly, although not nearly as brutal as, say, Akita's Venereology, this music ostensibly scrapes the ears with rusty broken razors. But there is something latently beautiful struggling to get out of the tornado of noise wrapped around this release. Usually, I find it difficult to sit through an entire piece by Akita but there is something mysterious about the craft of this release, perhaps in no small due to Haswell; something that tethers it to the ground while firmly embracing the storm. Be warned, this is not for the faint of heart, the dangerous blades on the cover are indicative of the package as a whole: undoubtedly deadly but strangely alluring. Sit down, place your headphones firmly around your poor ears, and prepare to be swept away."

Digital Harsh Beauty

John David Eriksen | Gainesville, Fl United States | 01/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Satanstornade was created by russell haswell and masami akita (aka merzbow) on two apple macintosh laptop computers. They recorded live onto a tape machine.The packaging is beautiful: photographs of ornate knives in a storefront display window. If you look carefully you can see reflections on the window of the sky and street behind the photographer. The packaging is somewhat deceiving, for the sounds contained in the recording are not as elegant, smooth or fluid as the glittering blades. An image that would represent the music's qualities would be a pile of broken glass, electrical components, and shorted wires to represent the texture of the sound. The mood of the disc is somber and darkly persistent.The sounds consist of: traditional noise elements (crunchy textures, bandpass filters that screech moan or roar, and resonant filter squeals) non traditional noise elements (guitar loops, digital flangers, other digital effects.The laptop-based nature of the noise gives the sound a distinctive quality. It is less smooth and warm than merzbow's traditional guitar pedal-based setup. There are few deep bassy pulses as the digital nature of the noise doesnt make for well-defined low end noise. The music acquires a sort of serrated digital harshness that gives it a different sound than one is used to from merzbow's earlier works.There is a definite sense of composition involved in the pieces that makes you return to the disc again and again. The four tracks are very intelligently constructed. A guitar loop grounds many of the tracks while textures roar in and out and high frequency squeals and filterpasses create a sort of melody over the bed of guitar and digital harsh textures. Each piece is not a static amorphous wall of noise.You may be put off by the cold and jagged nature of the digital noise, but the track construction and sense of purpose behind the music shines through and makes you return to these recordings time after time...."