A Personal Hell
(Small Doses - dose47) 7-inch + CDR $10.50
Rarely is harsh noise done as well as when Crumer's in charge: deliberate, personal, and soul-shredding. Metal drags, scrapes, bangs, and creaks - blowing microphones, speakers, and your mind. Edition of 300 on brown/green vinyl.
Ottoman Black
(Hospital - HOS215) CD $13.75
Fresh off a breakthrough Future With No Chance LP (RRRecords), Jason Crumer returns with an album of midnight drones and true noise. Using powerfully clear electronics as a base for declarative noise bursts, Crumer manipulates the sounds with a resounding animosity. His mean streak yields to an array of silences over the course of the album but nothing here is not painful here, especially the quiet; the peaks are almost a relief. "Betrayal After Betrayal" stands out with its conversational quality, both the screams and the muffles, the physicality, while "Where Were You" is an actionist-influenced piece of torture. Ottoman Black is a stern and unforgiving universe. TEDIUM HOUSE BEST OF 2008