SECRET ABUSE-Warm Selfish Body C20

SECRET ABUSE-Warm Selfish Body C20
CALLOW GOD 2008
I had only heard one release by Jeff Witscher’s Secret Abuse project prior to this. The Young Man Pushing Away Everything C12, released late last year. The impression it left was good, but unremarkable. I enjoyed it, certainly, but there was nothing to distinguish it from any other well-crafted tape. Still, it was enough for me to buy this release.

The cover image displays white dots arranged in an elegant pattern. The inside of the J-card features minimal white text and an image of stars behind a windowpane. The design is simple, but it fits the music well. There are four tracks, with a total play time of 20 minutes. Each track is roughly 5 minutes long. According to the liner notes, all the material was recorded on New Years’ Eve 2007. A perfect way to start off the new year for Callow God.

A Lady’s Voice begins with a dense wall of noise. Vocal samples slowly creep through, rendered completely unintelligible by distortion. The bass subtly swells and recedes, and after several minutes, a high-pitched synth shriek emerges. The pitch changes slowly, and forms a sort of melody. It continues like this until the end, where everything fades out but the bass, continuing its slow oscillation. I like this track, but it doesn’t actually develop into anything. There’s a lot of potential here, and something more could be definitely done.

Just as the first track is still fading, we’re hit with Commands Men. The backbone of this piece is a loud drone, which sounds more and more bell-like as it progresses. The same synth shrieks as the previous track appear, this time chopped up with a fast, deep tremolo. Brief vocals, delayed and tremoloed, punctuate what’s going on behind them. The sparse, monosyllabic style used here is a good fit for the slow movement of this track. There are snatches of haunting scrap metal percussion, but they’re so few and so quick that they don’t leave much of an impression. Static slowly washes over and builds up as the piece develops, and by the end the track is roaring. I love the slow progression on this one, but would’ve liked to hear more of the percussion.

Scared and Dazed begins with a low, choppy synth and static fading in and out over it. A loud tone abruptly bursts in, and the track is flung into movement. More blasts come as different elements cut in and out, occasionally removing everything but a rhythm that sounds almost like a rice shaker. Everything slows back down for a few moments as the original synth and static are slowly combined with the rice shaker, and then we’re thrown back into chaos. Usually I enjoy cutup tracks, but this is just tiresome. When there are only a few sound sources to cycle between, not much can be done.

To Kill Dogs has a light, beautiful, ringing melody masked behind heavy, dirty synths. Some very subtle siren noises appear in the right channel. Quick hits of fuzz add some movement to the track, and the synths slowly become denser and more abrasive. The melody changes, and a string instrument comes in to back it up. Suddenly, all the noise drops except for a few bare elements, letting us hear the melody more clearly over the rumbling and fuzziness. The tune plays over and over until the track ends. Anything that mixes light, melodic sounds with harsh noise I usually like, and the execution in this track was perfect.
Overall, this is an excellent tape. I’d like to hear more material like the last track, and hope Witscher will explore that direction more in the future.

By Zach Adams