I knew nothing about this project before getting this release, but Black Plumes is the work of one Alexia Grind. The label describes the project thus: “Black Plumes is the worker breaking her chains, filtered through amplified rage. Black Plumes is burning gunpowder in guerilla full metal jacket. Black Plumes is a strained voice that screams out, ‘No.’” Sounds like a timely album, so let’s see what we have here.

This album consists of one 16 minute track titled "Black Plumes," which kicks off with a sample of Cyrus' monologue from "The Warriors," stating "I say the future is ours if you can count" and ending with "can you dig it," which I always associate with Pop Will Eat Itself. This then kicks into blistering crunchy bass noise wall with high pitched feedback squalls throughout. And feedback. So much so that I was listening to this at work with headphones and my colleague came over to see what the heck I was listening to because he could hear the feedback from across the room. But there is a lot going on here, both with frequency and quiet passages that keep the listener engaged. Really well done.

I’m generally not a fan of high pitched noise, but this release manages to pull it off. If you like it harsh with a lot of variety, this is well worth checking out. This album weighs in at around 16 minutes.