NO VISITORS – LIVE FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT (RURAL ISOLATION PROJECT, 2021)
By Ryan Hall
An absolutely brutal and unrelentingly bleak noise album by No Visitors under the Rural Isolation Project imprint. Live From the Bottomless Pit was composed from five months of field recordings in 2020 – which itself was an unrelentingly bleak and isolating year. Matt Turner – who performs under No Visitors composed this double CD with the standard tools of the HNW trade – sheet metal, pedals, synths and tape – but where No Visitors really shines is the dynamics apparent in these tracks. While not deviating too much from the subject matter or abject mood, these songs dip into contemplative dark ambient territory where the noise is brought to a low rumble and we hear strangled tonal shifts through the thick haze. Other times, these carefully constructed structures of feedback and noise pierce through the audio field like a bullet through wet cement.
With the cover of a burning cop car on the cover – thankfully no longer a confrontational trope but a reoccurring image in the summer of 2020 – we hear the unrelenting lows and thrilling highs of a year that will be sure to echo throughout our time left on this earth like a reverb tail never quite dying down.
-- Tome To The Weather Machine