"The hymns label is a weird one, but you know I like it weird. I have reviewed a few of their releases in the past, like Landforms, Heirloom and Jesse Paul Miller (Editor's note: We now have a great archive/search function at Vital Weekly. Have you tried it already?). But they only have a few releases. Last year, 2 CDRs from Ironing, and this year, one is a collaboration between Ironing and Juice Machine. A lot of Ironing... This is the project of Andrew Chadwick, of whom the previously mentioned Heirloom is in the archives (I think he's the guy behind label two, but like with my guess of contact mic's on the Heirloom CDr, I will be called 'a good but wrong guesser' on their Facebook page). We also reviewed Juice Machine recently, as well as Roger Chefkirk and Heather from Eugene, OR.

The opening track makes you feel like you've just put on some Jorge Reyes. However, A loopy atmosphere that brings you into a mediative state properly placed field recordings and manipulations will prove you wrong. The second track,, 'Dosado ', is built around a melody line which is guitar. Later, it's filled in with erratic sounds of wind instruments and, again, a few nicely placed noise artifacts. When I arrived at this point, I couldn't think otherwise then. This album is about chaotic atmospheres. And behold, track three is less about the atmosphere, so yep, I was wrong(ish). When you think you got it, you're wrong again, and that's the fun of this release!

'Everglades' is almost danceable. Ok, granted, you have to be really, really drunk or high or stoned or unstable in any other form to do so, but ... Hey ... The atmosphere is there again, unlike the previous tracks; it's more like a rhythmic structure pushing you into movement, while the constantly more substantial chaotic layers push you in another direction. It has a dub feel somewhere in the middle before turning into frequency mayhem. The whispering voice is a nice layer, and I only wish I would understand.

Carnival music and kitties. "Ben the Cat" is not for me. It reminded me of a very underground version of Negativland; they can be chaotic sometimes. But they have a more robust method of telling stories. Also, more text-based. The fifth track, 'Mefon Dusku', continues this style, though the composition tells a more robust story using particular sounds. The last track has that dub feel again. Excellent use of loops and delays. Additional micro and game/Nintendo-style sounds ...

Yep, I can hear the joy in this release, The pleasure of making it and listening to it. (BW)"-BW, Vital Weekly