Ypsmael – Box of Black

9.10.22 by Jacob DeRaadt

Box of Black by Ypsmael is really well-crafted, modern noisy experimental electronic music with ambient touches in parts that encapsulates a lot of the newer digital aesthetics as well as the abstract. Wails of guitar-as-sound-source approach that sometimes lend themselves to melodic phrasings or repetition, but abruptly cut off. Other songs give an electro acoustic dissonance that sustains tension within bursts of high end feedback sends.

Microphones shake… Four track sliding fuckery of odd popping and rubbing sounds with what sounds like low level voltage stabs under the slowly building layers… The layering in parts is what sustains the tension and fills negative space while not filling them up entirely as a whole.  Muffled voices in the background… Moaning organ sounds against tuned water droplets in a lake or a vast cavern…

The Box of Black shines in the dark, glows with dark messages from other chaotic realms. Different zones get mined throughout a single tape.

Available from Public Eyesore Records who says “Sounds used are guitar, no-input feedback, voice, sipsi, slidewhistle, amplified objects and claves fed into pedals for effects, live loops and textural layering. All were arranged in rural Baden-Württemberg in 2021.”