CD, Hands Productions, 2011
www.antyscena.pl
Wierloyb (a Polish word meaning ‘whale’) brings you a release with plenty of powerful, booming and rhythmic noises and beats – as would be expected for something released on the Hands label. There is quite a bit of distortion and harshness on “Empty”, but it doesn’t overpower the music; in fact, it just hovers in the background through most of the disc. Though some of the material can be a bit repetitive, the album never seems to become mundane or boring and most of the tracks are short enough not to lose interest.
This is a good release, but has nothing that really sets it apart from other similar releases. Wierloryb do try and change it up a bit, such as on “Time Out” where a funky feel is added to the song. Vocals are used on “I Want To Feel”, and although they are distorted, you don’t often hear vocals in most rhythmic noise releases. There is very minimal use of samples throughout the disc, which is a nice change of pace from other releases in this genre.
As hinted by the track names, “Muba”, “Shiva” and “Kdansk” reflect an ethnic influence, but it is not overwhelming or heavily pronounced. The combination of rhythmic noise and ethnic flavor works well with “Shiva”, but doesn’t seem to mesh well on the other tracks. This could partly be because these two tracks have just small snippets of ethnic elements in them, and therefore seem to be more of a distraction than enhancement.
Most tracks would work well on a dance floor for the industrial crowd, however “Gear” is probably the song most suited for packing the floor. “Gear” includes more elements than simply pounding noise, such as some soft tones throughout and maniacal breaks, so it is probably the one to get most people’s attention. All in all, this is a solid release, but nothing spectacular.
[7/10]
— Kevin Congdon