New Mamiffer and House of Low Culture releases

Mammifer/House of Low Culture split cassette & Mammiffer "LIVE"/by way of daniel Menche cassette

Sige Records

Two really wonderful new releases from the minds of Faith Coloccia and Aaron Turner. The first cassette is a split release from these two with two different faces, House of Low Culture and Mamiffer. Both projects are essentially these two but Mamiffer is definitely Faith's and HOLC is definitely Aaron. They are both so talented and lend so much good work to each other. I am rule inspired by these two. They live on Vashon Island just outside of Seattle. It's a short ferry ride and quick drive from downtown Seattle but it feels like you are in the middle of nowhere Washington. Like a small concentrated drop of Pacific Northwest. They seem to have channeled the intensity and beauty that is the PNW into their music and art—I have first hand knowledge of both—and it's almost nourishing for me. The first release is a split and the sounds move from distant chilling guitar accompanied by an all too present assault of texture to more abstract noise but with a real sense of shape and size. It's gorgeous. The second release is live Mamiffer tracks that have then been reinterpreted by Daniel Menche. I gave a past release of his a pretty poor review but make no mistake, this man is a source of so much inspiration for me. I saw him open for Massonna and Merzbow years and years ago and was totally blown away. he played tapes and a bucket full of rocks and it created sound that completely overtook me. I think he was the first to really capture what the PNW sounds like in the framework of experimental and noise. I highly recommend both of these releases. The packaging is perfect and beautiful. I am never a fan of having to destroy packaging to get to your media but this process—carefully removing stitches—was well worth it. I am constantly inspired by the time and care these two musicians and designers take with their work.