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Review of Abstractithica by Max Hall on Evil Hoodoo

Abstractithica came about while travelling around the world, also in and around the UK, using nothing but a stereo field recorder, gathering sounds, atmosphere’s and conversations, noises, anything that vibrated the airwaves over a period of 4 years. Coming from boredom and lack of inspiration with formula production and seeking a new angle of creativity.

Experimentation then ensued in the studio for about a year, putting all these gathered recordings into a collage of Atmospheric sounds to create “40 minutes of beautifully sculpted field recordings”, and the result is a mind bending mixture of recognisable and alien sounds that will drag the listener into a dream like state, confusing the brain and wondering at times what actually happened over the last 42 minutes. Not like anything you’ve heard before, this is a truly unique, one off record.

Abstractithica is available as a 250 vinyl pressing, super limited edition release from Evil Hoodoo.

Abstractithica is an excellent album, it’s a superb soundscape with ambient, drone, noise and cinematic qualities. There are lots of subtleties and complexities, excellent layering of sounds, seamless transitions and an edge of tension at times.

Part One
Like an evolving siren with metallic drone, it’s an edgy opening propelled by recorded conversations and field recordings blended with drones and interspersed with fairground / park / vocal sounds to create a complex, intricate and captivating soundscape. There are lots of subtleties, great use of delay and a superb flow contrasting between drone, ambience and tension, often a blend of all 3 ending with a very ancient cinematic type of sound.

Part Two
Opens with a fairground ride recording leading into an edgy drone / soundscape retaining large elements of the fairground ride sound which gives a haunting, decaying feel. Various recordings contrast against a wall of harsh noise evolving into a dark ambience, pulsing and swirling with disembodied voices evoking some strange place straight out of a Lovecraft story. A seamless transition to a more ambient soundscape follows, retaining just an edge of tension with subtle use of recordings. A change of feel follows, a more edgy sound with disembodied vocals, background sounds and swirling noise returning to a fairground feel with superb haunting qualities.