Penetration Camp- Sampler

Artist: Penetration Camp
CD Title: 3-song sampler
Label: Backwards Records
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 4/23/06

A brief selection of tracks from extreme noise project Penetration Camp, this disk runs the gamut from excruciating to merely disturbing. "Poor Little Town Of Bethlehem" starts things off with moaning drones and hints of distorted conversation that recalls the tape loop experiments of Current 93's early work. Originally appearing on the Zaftig Research compilation Silver Bells, it's the closest Penetration Camp gets to meditative. "English Pigfest (ill) Drink" is more brutal, an arrangement of grating feedback and scraped metal chopped into a rhythm of sorts and occasionally giving way to bursts of out-of-tune guitar, with the arrangements and timbres of various and tortured sound effects coming together in a gestalt that resembles nothing so much as a symphony consisting entirely of dentist's drills. "You Have The Power," though subdued in comparison, is perhaps the most painful offering presented. Starting off with relatively inoffensive white noise, it quickly builds into a crescendo of distortion. Making things worse is an effect that seems to be a pencil scratching on paper, but amplified to such a ridiculous degree as to produce the same teeth-gritting reaction as fingernails scraped along a blackboard. The relative brevity of this sampler is its mercy; few will be able to make it through all three tracks, and fewer still would be able to withstand a full-length album. For we noise fiends, of course, this is a compliment in the highest degree.

Visit Penetration Camp's website at www.backwardsrecords.com/penetration.htm.