Theology, by the Italian noise/experimentalist trio
3/4 Had Been Eliminated, is being simultaneously released in two versions: a limited-edition CD (in a handmade hinged wooden box) and an even-more-limited-edition LP titled The Religious Experience, which is made up of "re-compositions" of the same original material. The program consists of two tracks: the first, "I Am Daughter," features a varying mix of random wooden creaks, sotto voce vocalizing, random thwacks, and guitar noise with floating clouds of feedback chords in the background. Over the course of its 29 minutes the sound gradually gets glitchier, eventually incorporating found sounds in a seemingly random manner. Then it gets darker and more foreboding, as androgynous vocals float in and out in a disturbingly intimate manner. The final result is a track that sounds like it's maybe trying too hard to be creepy. The second piece, "The Cradle," is much more convincingly creepy. A restrainedly tormented vocal floats beneath the surface, while disinterested voices declaim quietly above it. The pianos are more insistently atonal; the guitars play tritones; the creaking sounds are louder and clustered more closely together. This is the sound of damned souls giving up the ghost -- not with railing and anger, but with despair and regret and fatigue. Definitely worth hearing once; not something to which you're likely to return in quiet moments. ~ Rick Anderson