supplications c78
[2007, black horizons]

for a guy who appears to be all over the internet, iowa's darren bauler manages to maintain a pretty low key profile. while i can find out what his musical interests are or his favorite books via friendster (friendster?! lolz), i can't seem to find out anything about his actual musical endeavors or why he named his project after provera. nothing shouts: "get ready for some fun!" quite like chemical compounds.by design, i think that noise is supposed to give you a headache, and that you shouldn't first get a headache and then go listen to noise. regardless, i've had an annoying headache all weekend, bad for reviewing loud music, but i have work to do... so much work. while i'm on my way to becoming the first moron to overdose on excedrin, i won't let that serve as an impasse.

alright, the a-side opener the mars hill halfway house talent show sounds like it could actually be fun, but no, all the fun is being isolated to its title. while it's twenty-two minutes long, it's an outstanding first impression. this is along the lines of a haunting epic. it's paced really slowly, but darren opts not for eerie minimalism, but instead piles on complimentary layers (which he'll continue to do throughout supplications), some of which are panned to certain channels. it's all crafted rather remarkably. the inclusion of an oscillating ambiance which is punctuated sporadically by feedback will net bauler a gold star next to his name. there are some dynamics to it as it rolls along, more prevalent during the last half. corrupted mirror-trap is more minimal sounding. there's some nice static that gets briefly interrupted by a really nice musical piece, but then it's back to the static until the final minute. it's good. the groaned from beyond the grave vocals on they will never find my body are superb, thankfully, so to is the music itself.

going back to friendster, under darren's favorite tv shows 'test bars' was listed, and never is that more evident than on the second side's the hudson working (they see you with three eyes). it starts off with high pitched frequencies that could've been done by the emergency broadcast system itself. darren, you're killing my head right now. hudson is in a similar vein as the mars hill, nice use of layers, down-tempo mood but it lacks the creepier feeling that the other track gave me. the finale, melusine shoreline features the only attempt at rhythm, and it's a successful one. while it's processed to hell, maybe beneficially so, it's a solid component that gives it some staying power. great use of different channel layers as well as background ambiance.black horizons has a real winner with this cassette (originally released back in 2004 in an edition of five). it's not outright noisy, the feedback and high pitches might make you reach for the volume knob, but that's about it. i loved mpa's layering, tonality and use of mood. supplications could be sinister at times, but really, it was seldom. you don't have to be into death industrial / dark ambient to appreciate medroxy progesterone acetate.

another visually pleasing tape from the label, too.

They Will Never Find My Body

Thanks for the review! I was trying to be low profile, but not *that* low profile, so I whipped up a bio. I don't remember how I started using the name MPA, except that I wanted to use another three-letter acronym, but it definitely wasn't my smartest move -- I still forget how to spell it once in a while.

haha, zombie monkey corpse. weird that i missed that part of the bio when i read it initially... thanks Darren.