Looks like it's experimental and harsh noise weekend here at the Mecca household, since I've finally gotten up the nerve to delve into the four CD package Input Error label head Ewan Aparicio sent me with a nice handwritten note. I have to preface this by saying that I'm not a big noise music enthusiast but there are certain things about the genre that I find interesting, and I think I'm competent enough describing what I'm hearing so you can make up your own mind in spite of my color commentary. First up is Mlehst, the English experimental noise project founded in 1991 by All Brentnall who has released many, many works on tape, vinyl CDr and CD over the years. I'm sure noise enthusiasts know much more about Mlehst than I do, and some may even already be familiar with 'Deep Throat and Felching' which was originally released on cassette in 1995 on Smell & Quim's Stinky Horse Fuck label in a limited edition which has been sold out for a long time.

We've got 7 tracks in 60 minutes here, the first and longest being "everything i touch turns to shit" clocking in at almost half the allotted hour. This is a real phantasmagoria of tape dice 'n splice, overdubbed voices and loops, electronic noise and what have you. Lots of manipulated (sped up, slowed down, etc) voices, squalling noise, tonally mixed noise, backwards noise slices, musical snippets, and more. There are a fair amount of echo trails. Nice varied assortment in this sound collage which offers some breathing space now and then. "wankers," which follows, plumbs the lower registers with a pseudo-demonic voice, grating metallic noises, spooky piano, and other atmospheric sounds. The longer it goes on, the better it gets. "fuckers" is a short piece with throbbing electronic oscillations, while a voice repeatedly whispers "we are fuckers" and a high piercing tone. "felching a tight arse" offers a variety of noise in a variety of environments (distant, chambered, up front) as well as harmonic drone, some looping, cymbals, etc. "shitting spunk" (now there's a too visceral title) begins with cymbal zizzing and string-plucking=picking harmonics with more noise pouring down like silver over time. "twice on sunday" begins with noise but quickly switches to backward string slices, backward manipulated voices, and a throbbing pulse which turns into a pummeling pulse. "sex then death" begins with a brief tumble down noise slide, then some abstract improvisational electric piano plucking with a fair dollop of reverb. The track goes on for a surprisingly long time for this kind of thing; 7:14 total.

Of all the CDs in the batch, I liked this one the best, mostly because it is more varied than the others, has less harsh noise, and offered something more artistic than circuit-bending knob twiddling.