CD-R, self-released, 2005
structura.pt.to
This slim-case CDR is a live recording from a late 2004 performance of Structura in Portugal. Clocking at nearly 38 minutes, it’s a rather small affair of a record. Alas, the actual problem with the release is not its length, but how that time is put to use.
I might be a bit jaded, but I find spoken word (notice the choice of verb: “spoken”, not “sung”) in power noise tracks to be a really great way to ruin a track. Unfortunately, Structura do this in nearly all the tracks of this album, the intro actually consisting of shouted and slightly distorted speech only, the garbling and byte-murdering of the vocalist by the end of it being pretty much the only redeeming quality.
Unlike the recent examples of Revelation and Figure, that also included spoken word, the speech here is out of place and sync with the music, not mending with it but contrasting it in an unfavorable and annoying manner, almost as if the vocalist was in a shouting match against the band.
Musically, while not being the second coming of Conver… Christ, they manage well, the beats churning out some decent aural damage, with their fast as well their overloaded bits. However, I feel that there’s a certain simplicity of creativity here, which they may been sought to overcome by the addition of lyrics, but ended up more in bad drama than good art, the voice spoiling even the good that the music itself can make.
As much as I dislike saying such things, I believe Structura were not yet ready for a full release. Perhaps it’s the limitations of what someone can do in a live setting as opposed to a studio that resulted in this, and I’d like to hear them improve, but only after they put a little more effort in correcting their sound.
[4/10]
— George Mouratidis