Over "s/t"

Over
s/t
No Visible Scars
(2)

I kinda want to give this a 3 rather than a 2 but i am torn. When I first put this on I was instantly into it. A super dark and lonely drone that seemed to fill the whole room with dread. I was getting ready to start taking notes but then all of a sudden some samples came it. A man was recalling his childhood in short bursts of edited samples. Talking about being a kid, going to Toys r us, jacking off and molesting. Maybe it's my age or even my exposure to a lot of this stuff in the 90's (I don't want to admit how many times I listened to Buyer's Market by Peter Sotos as if it were music) but I think this doesn't really effect me anymore other than making me a bit bored. The music on this release is excellent and right up my alley; super bleak and dark. When you add the samples over the top I get the feeling you want to force me to feel deep dark emotional torment and it becomes a bit contrived. Turns out the samples are not taken from another source. These are the artist's own confessions. That does make this a bit more interesting but sonically I still have the same issues. I think if I listened to one side of the tape and it was just the music and the other side was just the samples it would have been way more effective. That's the other thing. This tape is one sided. It's not exactly a deal breaker but you really need to go ahead and repeat the program on side B. Packaged in a 7" bag with a pretty grim photo on the cover though. Limited to 25 copies.