Nestled away behind the monotone artwork of the fold-out card sleeve comes the latest (at the time of writing anyway) offering from the UK-based industrial / drone duet Dieter Müh. Originally recorded, I believe, in 2001 and 2002, this three-track 7” EP is a wonderfully bleak example of droned sound sculptures, demonstrating exactly why Dieter Müh, over their ten or so year career, have forged out a renowned name for themselves in the industrial noise scene.

Taking a somewhat unorthodox formation in terms of recording, one side consists of the single track ‘Aakal’, being the work of Steve Cammack, whilst the other side of the record consists of two tracks, ‘Nostrum’ and ‘Earblind’, which are the work of this group’s other half David Uden.

The EP’s opening track ‘Aakal’ is a stark amalgamation of analogue sounds, electronic buzzes, hums and haunting washes of frequencies, which produce an intensely barren soundscape for the sampled spoken monologue to be carried along by. With a dense sound and atmosphere, it mirrors the monotone sleeve artwork perfectly, producing an unusually complex intensity built up around seemingly simplistic strictures which build together into something far more structured and intricate that originally indicated.

‘Nostrum’, David Uden’s first offering, features the harshest noise of the EP, as it sets about creating an impenetrable wall of noise through the use of a single, repetitive electronic pulse of sound that is sped up and slowed down, so its consistency and shape fluctuate in a seemly kaleidoscopic nature, whilst bursts of noise, echoed sounds and rumbled frequencies are piled on top of one another to create a harrowingly intense and grandiose cacophony of noise. And then, as quickly as it was constructed, it’s gone, and a brief respite of silence echoes deafeningly before the slow-paced monologue of ‘Earblind’ crawls forth. Manipulated, warped and deconstructed, the spoken words are restructured into waves of moving droned sounds, amalgamated with washes of dense electronic soundscapes to produce a thick, gloopy sound that is a real pleasure to be stuck in. It slowly picks away at your senses, whilst its constantly repetitive tones penetrate your mind in an almost hypnotic fashion. Yet, all too quickly, it’s over. The needle clicks off the record and your senses are snapped back into reality.