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 | turk knifes pope: performance crippled data restriction (zenflesh - 1998) The content of performance crippled data restriction is one 72-minute-long ever-evolving tableau of noise. Not necessarily noisy noise, as much of it is quite restrained, and even quiet, noise. |
| The cute bunny graphic on the cover may be misleading, unless you take into account the expression on his little face, and the incoherent title in the hyper-grunge typeface.
The major component seems to be processed guitar feedback and occasional atonal chords which range in intensity from slight hums to full squalls. After 10 minutes everything quietens to near-silence, gradually rising somewhat again on distorted reverberations. The cavernous sounds are spooky, a bit Lustmord-ian even. Eventually train-whistle-like blares slice through the lull, only to go almost silent again. Sometime after the 30-minute mark, explosively echoing ripples of sound violently intrude on the generally moderate noise levels, then fade away after alternating a few more times between threateningly raucous and pretty quiet. Other louder phases sound more like thunder or distant warfare, while softer interludes echo the forgotten sounds of an abandoned factory. After 48-minutes, an almost musical sensibility blossoms from the electronically wavering tones, growing louder and stronger into a droning insectile roar. At some later point the guitar sound shows through the dissonsance, only to be sucked back into a vortex of caustic feedback. Eventually, the disc abruptly closes after a hushed loop cycle. |
| performance crippled data restriction is probably not for everyone. I like it just fine as background noise; it's got a pleasantly dark quality I enjoy quite well, but when I attempt to get "into" it though, I have a harder time. At first I thought the quiet-loud-quiet-loud cycle was aimless, but then realization dawned... it's like life, man! Still, I gotta hoist One Thumb. |  |
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