FFI Digital is one of the many monikers of label head Dan Fox, the hardest working man in noise. What sets FFI Digital apart from his other projects, mainly Loss and Fail, is that the albums from this project are “created entirely on a PC using various paid and free plugins, and lots and lots of automation.” Well, let’s dive in and see what the noise factory has on the assembly line.

We open up the disc with “180119G,” and Fox comes out swinging. This is digital noise that blasts out your speakers and manages to do so on all frequencies possible. There is heavy undercurrent of static while high pitches screeches blast through the upper register. This throws everything at you all at once, and it is wonderful. “180119H” takes a different approach, with a stripped down beat and sparse, crackling noise. Think a more minimalist Ant-Zen kind of track. A bit too minimalist for my taste, but pleasant.
Now on to the second disc. “180119ACEGRMXB” closes out the album with a 20 minute tour-de-force that brings back the harsh noise but keeps everything interesting. You can think of this track as a journey, with Fox as the demented tour guide driving you around, not quite making all of the turns, and I’m pretty sure he ran over a fire hydrant back there. But you will see things far off the beaten path. If you make it there. Either way, it is a memorable ride. Very well done.

If this is what PC plugins and automation sounds like, I suppose we will have to worry about AI taking away jobs from hard working noise musicians in the not so distant future. This is solid noise and Fox throws everything he has at the listener. Well worth checking out if you like it noisy. This album weighs in at 40 minutes and is limited to 42 copies.

I have listened to Dan Fox for many years now, and Fail is one of his many projects. He is also the driving force behind Inner Demons records. The liner notes state that this is Practice #1 for the May 2024 tour with Vasectomy Party. Based on this, if you are in the Florida area, make sure to catch Fail's next show because this is a great musical journey.

This is one track at almost 20 minutes titled "First Failure," with tons of digital noise and a lot of variety in it. Fox's judicial use of dynamics and changes in pace keep everything interesting. This is not chaotic and has the feel of a carefully composed piece of noise. If you are looking for harsh noise wall that remains generally static, this is not going to work for you, but if you like a lot of variety in your sound palette, then this will be exactly what you are looking for. This is another excellent work by Fail, and thus, as the title suggests, he has once again failed to fail to fail, and we are all the better for it. Well done.

Dan Fox is a man with many hats. In addition to running Inner Demons Records, he records under the names Fail, Loss, This Is What I Hear When You Talk, and several others. This is a record of a short tour that he did in 2024 with Vasectomy Party under the name Fail. Let’s dive in and get a sense of how this plays out live.

We kick it off with Fail’s performance in Jacksonville, Florida. This is, without a doubt, the best piece I have ever heard from Fail. If you buy any disc from Fail, this should be the one you get on the strength of this performance alone. The composition is complex, well crafted, and beautiful. Frankly, I'm impressed that he could pull this off live because there's so much going on here. Fox draws on a wide range of sounds and dynamics to take the listener on an auditory ride. This is noise in the way that the ocean or a thunderstorm is noise; awesome and glorious. Well done.

I wish we had the first 3 minutes of Chattanooga, because it was fantastic also. It's similar in style to the Jacksonville performance, but this one seems a bit more digital, for lack of a better term, and has a kind of intensity and tension that wasn't as prominent in the other track. Fox makes great use of crescendo and building of tension throughout by repeatedly arpeggiating up the scale. This repetition serves to build intensity and works well.

Finally, we have the performance in Panama City, which like Florida itself, is much more chaotic than the previous two. Like the other two performances, this is well put together and uses dynamics to his advantage, lulling you in with a drone only to hit you with a lot of analog noise squiggles.

All three of them are excellent but my money's on the first two. It's nice to hear a master of his craft at work and if you ever find yourself stuck in Florida for some reason and you happen to see Fail on the bill of a show, this disc shows that it's definitely worth getting up and going to check it out. Well worth picking up. This album weighs in at around 47 minutes.

Fail is one of the many monikers of Dan Fox, who also records under the names Loss, This is What I Hear When You Talk, and the man behind Inner Demons Records. In short, he has been around long enough to need little introduction. Fail is one of his noisier projects, but it is much more varied in scope than TIWIHWYT and less orchestral than Loss. So let's dive in and see just how unfortunate things can get.

We open up with "Tallypractice," which begins with some heavily processed voices that give way to lots of bass drone and squiggly analog noise sounds. About 6 minutes in, there are some unexpected noise blasts that are significantly louder than the rest of the track. This would be only the first surprise as we find that this was simply Fox opening the floodgate of noise and things get increasingly intense. We have a plodding thud over what sounds like a series of table saws running in unison. Towards the end, we hear more of the processed voice before it is all buried under the crushing noise only to re-emerge victoriously. If you like your noise with a lot of variety, Fail has you covered.
"Unadequacy" opens with what sounds like a dot matrix printer and some synth drone. Bits of static and reverbed metal noise interrupt it all like an unwanted dinner guest. We get a drum beat of sorts later on, but this is dismantled immediately in favor of screeching noise.

Overall, this is a fun ride and there is nothing unfortunate about it. If you found This is What I Hear When You Talk to be a bit too wall-ish for your tastes, this is one you need to check out. There is a ton of variety and the music is crafted well and things are clearly done intentionally. This is solid noise and well worth checking out. This disc weighs in at around 20 minutes and is limited to 42 copies.

I could find little on this artist, although the link listed is to a French site that simply describes it as “harsh noise from Belgium.” The bio states that "PRURIT is making noise not music with custom fabricated machines, toys, circuit bending, modified Walkman, feedback, contact mics, signal generator, tapes with homemade sound sources, distortion, fuzz, voices." Sounds like a good time, so let's dive in and see what the cats have in store for us.

The album opens up with “Dusk,” which is 12 minutes of ear cleaning harsh noise. If you enjoyed listening to the white noise static of a TV after broadcast had concluded for the night, there will be a bit of nostalgia at the opening. But this is not harsh noise wall, where the static nature takes over. No, Prurit is an artist after my own heart, giving us what I call "kitchen sink noise," where you throw in everything including the kitchen sink into the composition. It's harsh, it's noisy, but it certainly isn't boring because there is so much going on in this track. Tone generators, pulsing static, crackling noise, and a touch of feedback to top off the noise sundae. Definitely a good time. The other track, “Empty Hour,” lures you in with a false sense of security, opening up with subdued crackling noise, like listening to noise from a distance. Prurit then unloads with both barrels, unleashing a feedback-laced noise tirade that is a lot crunchier than the previous track. If you like high frequency noise, this will be right up your alley.

Overall, this is some excellent harsh noise. If you like it harsh, Prurit delivers. When I find myself thinking, "I would like to do a split with this person," I know I have found something interesting. Well worth checking out. This album weighs in at 20 minutes.