For those of you unfamiliar with this artist, Fail is the work of Dan Fox, the man behind Inner Demons Records and the hardest workin’ man in noise music. His pedigree is well known, so let’s dive in and see what he have this time.
"160227B" kicks off with what sounds like heavily distorted vocoder and high-pitched feedback noise. Rumbling noise comes in to join the feedback to provide some balance. This then shifts gears into a rumbling ride with a synth pulse that rings out like a bass-driven heartbeat as heavily distorted voices run over the top of it all. But don't even try to figure out what they are saying because it is a fool's errand. There is a lot going on here, and I love the kitchen sink approach to noise, so this works well. But it is not chaotic. Rather, it comes across as intentionally constructed.
"160904" is a 20 minute drone-driven work that kicks off with the sounds of air raid sirens before shifting gears into heavy, stuttering drone, which smooths out into some bass drone with incidental noises thrown in and sweeping flanger. This then shifts to grinding noise over pulsing drone. Compared to the previous track, this is downright peaceful. If you like your drone with a little grit to it, this is well worth checking out.
Overall, this shows the versatility of Fail. It is not just harsh noise and it is definitely not total chaos. This is carefully constructed noise that has a goal beyond simply blowing the listener away. Well done. This album weighs in at around 33 minutes.