THE CHERRY POINT – LIVE HELL 2

CD http://www.iheartnoise.com/

It’s time again to get your ears blasted out with this triple treat from our friends at Troniks and Helicopter. Troniks is the label run by Phil Blankenship, whose name we will see a few times in this review. Helicopter is the label run by none other than John Wiese, who, like Phil, is one of the artists on these CDs. As long as I can remember, the Troniks website has been http://www.iheartnoise.com/, and it always made me smile. It still does because “Yes, we do!”

The Third and final release in this batch is The Cherry Point, and you’ve guessed it, maybe, but this is the new/current project by Phil Blankenship. Active after the demise of LHD, with a high output until ’08, then some silence, and again active after 2015. We won’t delve into Phil’s background because it has already been mentioned above. This is “Live Hell 2,” so it’s interesting to see if there’s a #1. And yes, “Live Hell” was released as a single-sided vinyl in 2015. Unobtainable now, as there were only 30 copies.

The recordings on this CD are all from 2005 and 2006, except one (#7). All performances took place in Los Angeles, California, except for one (#5). And finally, all tracks should be labelled as harsh noise, with no exceptions. This is a short intro; let’s dive in. A few of the recordings were done with fellow musicians. The first show, “Berserk,” was performed with Andorkappen on vocals; it was short, heavy, and angry. The third track, “Salt Killers,” was a performance featuring NVH, also known as Noel Harmonson. Part of it seems to be previously released as 7″ on Troniks. Track 6 is – like the first track – also titled “Berserk”, but this one is a performance with Blud Thirst. They also released a single-sided album on Troniks in 2005. There are also two tracks titled “Live Hell”. The one closing the album is a performance from 2018 together with John Wiese, the other one is the second track and this one I may like the most in composition. It’s strongly loop-based and gets a bit of a power electronics/death industrial vibe on top of the harsh noise experience. Tracks 4 and 5 are both titled “Avalanche” and were recorded less than 10 days apart. Two live shows with probably the same setup and preparation, resulting in two different approaches. #4 keeps on pounding with saturated bass layers while in #5 there is a liiiiiiitle bit of breathing space for the higher frequencies. It’s recorded a bit sharper, for lack of a better word. I’m feeling in need of a live noise festival now …

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