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Document 2 - Sevenhourgerm | |||||||||||||||||||
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 Document 2 by Sevenhourgerm (Matthew Atkins) is a CDR including nine experimental tracks released on the Minimal Resource Manipulation label. Found sounds and noise are crafted into varying degrees of coherency, with rhythm and melody flirting at the edge of perception. Each track is short for music typical of this genre, except for the final track Ten Years Later. The analogue synth meanderings of the first two tracks give way to drum and bass inspired samples and noise in the third track, Dronal Catastrophe. Feedback is interwoven until a crescendo is reached, at which point the track changes direction and evolves into rapid fire bursts of static. The pace slows down at track four, Threaded Metals, where lowercase samples with subtle distortion reverberate to give the impression of metallic entities inside a huge hall. The next track, ECE Tape 2, is similar but more intense as distorted instruments sound like fading memories of music, almost intangible if it were not for the repeated and layered motifs. Track six, Bludgeon, uses a strong rhythm as the backbone with manipulated samples dancing around the beat. It's more Aphex Twin than twenty first Century experimental glitch, and it serves as a centre piece to the rest of the album when listened in context. Next, Zone 14 switches back to the earlier style of the album. It starts off with a passage that sounds like old analogue synthesizers, bringing to mind abandoned industrial spaces and Wednesday continues this, relying on heavier distortion cookie-cut with rapid tremolo. Document 2 ends with Ten Years Later, nine minutes of edited radio samples and more analogue synth-inspired passages. It's almost like a combination of all the other techniques and sonic ideas on Document 2, with improvised passages played by tuning a radio. If so, I presume the piece was performed in April 2008 (there's clearly audible fragments of "UK lorry drivers protesting".) Document 2 is a diverse foray into noise, glitch and found sounds. The samples are often distorted to the edge of perception, which makes listening to the full album like experiencing somebody else's memories. This abandoned industrial feeling works well, making it more of an experience than a set of tracks. Review by Alex Young
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