Electro Acoustic Shamanism & Totem Worship
This is another in the recently-released series of Icelandic noise cassettes from the Hundrað Prósent Plastík label put out to coincide with RVK Noise Fest 2 earlier this year. This is actually my second aural encounter with Ófreskja, as I also reviewed a CDr they put out last year called Íviðjulykkja.
Flagð Undir Fögru Skinni is the sounds of a thousand years of decay happening in a matter of seconds; of whale-song if it was made by machinery that lacked the necessary lubrication; of a solar flare hitting the earth’s atmosphere and spewing its energy across our sky; of a train with locked brakes sliding down the tracks inside a tunnel; of societal collapse on fast forward. This isn’t the noise wall of their label-mates Mávar, but instead a composition of more disparate parts. Have no fear, there’s an underlying sonic palette here, one of metal-on-metal and imploding buildings, but it comes at you in wave after wave of sonic assaults, broken by momentary respites. I enjoy the way this tape is put together, the brief bursts hitting like bullets one after another.
Cassette copies of Flagð Undir Fögru Skinni are currently available via the White Centipede Noise website HERE and at Lucky Records in Reykjavik HERE.