Elongated drones with distant, scratchy voice samples that mutate around the tone are generally a brave introduction to a collection of recorded music. If however, the listener favours the innovative and the experimental, then “Octagon”, the first track on “Cold Ground” is stirring news. Echoes of Yul, essentially Michal Sliwa and Mateusz Czech, originate from Opole in Poland, and will challenge the listener with this latest release which can broadly be described as disquieting. “Foundations” is a writhing collusion of extended guitar riffs, drones and vocal samples that stalk the listener’s subconscious, upsetting them further with passages of dissonance and anguish.
“Look you’re hurt.....It’s nothing......You’re filthy...” creep voice samples eerily over ponderous riffs and desolate percussion on “The Tenant”, whilst “Numbers” is pushed laboriously onward over clanging chords and pummelling rhythm. Probably one of the more accessible pieces on the album “Libra”, features the characteristic riffs and enigmatic electronic effects, but pushes the tempo and vigour up, whilst incorporating the vocal samples into the music itself, as opposed to using them to enhance the overall atmospheres. “The Message” is to some extent evocative of the distorted hip hop collections put together by bassist and producer Bill Laswell, as the beats are pushed low down into the mire of the mix, which is dominated by inscrutable vocals and bass. “Chrome” incorporates a similar hip hop mentality but uses it as a vehicle for further monstrous riffs and daunting vignettes of voice and sound. The title track “Cold Ground” is perhaps the most varied journey on the album, as it features a number of sections welded together into a dignified opus of progressions, while the final “Chrome” is a ten minute passage of rite, as it features repeated phrases which accumulate into a crescendo of otherworldly sound and ambience....
Read the full review at Scratch the Surface
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