Pieces Vol 3

We’re less than a week away from all Hallow’s Eve. The ghouls are sharpening their claws and the witches are getting their cauldrons ready to boil up the bones of the innocent…or something like that. Either way, we’re down to just days before Halloween is upon us. The past two weeks have been a countdown of sorts. Not just a countdown to trick-or-treating, debaucherous costume parties, and scaring your younger sibling with tales of zombie mom and dad coming to eat their brains on Halloween night, but of the finale to Burning Witches Records’ trilogy of aural terror. Yes, my undead friends and foes, Pieces Vol 3 is upon us. Gaze into its coal-black eyes and fall into the spell of Deadly Avenger and Graham Reznick. Pieces Vol 1 shocked you, Pieces Vol 2 possessed you, now let Pieces Vol 3 swallow your very soul(if you’re cool with that.)

Deadly Avenger is the kind of guy that knows how to set a mood. Whether he’s taking us back to the skate parks of California in the early 80s, destroying Japan with a Kaiju, or priming us with incidental music in a film trailer, Damon Baxter(aka Deadly Avenger) can lay down just the right aural vibes. On Pieces Vol 3, 2.2.2, D.A.(as his friends call him down at the pub) puts together a tasty bit of neo-futuristic dread. A techno-laden anxiety attack of epic proportion.

2.2.2 is an epic 15 minute exploration of incidental music. A cut-and-paste slice of industrial swaths, electro noise, and simmering pulses of buzzsaw synths. Deadly Avenger paints a bloody canvas of ups and downs, quiet solace, and paranoid android beats. Baxter truly is one of the greats in terms of pulling you in for an instant connection(doing film trailer spots, that’s the name of the game), and his work with Burning Witches Records is no different. His “side” of the cassette really does run the gamut. You feel as if you’ve just watched a nightmarish short film after it’s all said and done. It’s like a nightmare version of “Revolution No. 9”. A schizophrenic journey filled with synths, piano, industrial noise, and screeches and squelches. A truly riveting journey.

Now for side two.

Graham Reznick is no slouch when it comes to the noise game. His bread and butter is making the audio trip riveting and engaging in film. He designs the sounds and puts them in just the right spots, making that cinematic experience all the more visceral. With Burning Witches, Graham released his second album of 2018 in Robophasia. That album was a Harold Faltmeyer acid trip of electronic beats and hallucinogenic synths; a cross between Yaz, Johnny Mnemonic, Naked Lunch, and the Beverly Hills Cop S/T on mescaline. It was a genius neo-futuristic noir score just on the edge of insanity.

With Buried Teeth, Reznick’s side B, he continues his swirl of psychedelic android beats and acid-tinged electro sonics that work us into some alternate reality of man vs machine(or maybe man being consumed by machine.) Tracks like “Hollown”, “Brittle Bittle”, and “Middle Glass” work us into a flurry of psychedelic broken toy noise. The vibe is intense and seductive here. It seems as if we’re taken on a journey into some alternate reality where things are not what they seem. One of the most interesting spots on this journey is “Magnetic Coil”. There’s a real sense of dark melancholy in this track; the point where our fate is sealed and acceptance is begrudgingly met.

Burning Witches Records continues to give us the best dark vibes out there. The amount of exquisitely-curated noise this label has given us in two years time really is quite staggering, and the Pieces trilogy that has soundtracked October 2018 only solidifies BWR as one of the premier labels working today. Burning Tapes, Repeated Viewing, Espectrostatic, All of Them Witches, Deadly Avenger, and Graham Reznick have given us our Halloween score, all that’s left for us is to hit play and fall into the worlds they’ve built for us.

Hit play, and succumb.

Pieces Vol 3 is available now. Head to Burning Witches Record’s Bandcamp page and download it now. And if you haven’t yet(why wouldn’t you have?), download Vol 1 and Vol 2.