Lortica – Mialle Tapes (Feral Media/Phinery)

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2014 has been a fruitful year for Sydney based musician Alister Hill. Under the nom de plume of Lortica, Hill has released a debut EP  – SAD LTD EP  – and now his first full length album, Mialle Tapes.  Both works have received critical attention and a stack of independent radio play.

Hill manipulates found cassettes, guitars, effects pedals and a four track tape deck into dark ambience.  Given his penchant for cassettes, Mialle Tapes has an unsurprising lo-fi aesthetic; in fact most of the tracks are coated in persistent tape hiss, which becomes a unifying timbre for the album.

In his Cyclic Defrost review of SAD LTD EP http://www.cyclicdefrost.com/2014/08/lortica-sad-ltd-ep-valley-spirit/, Greg Bird described the construction of “murky soundscapes” and “weathered loops”. If anything, Mialle Tapes muddies the waters even more. There is much less use of repetition as a compositional tool, rather this album is closer to pure through composed sound design. To my ears, Lortica mines a similar vein to Tim Hecker.

The tracks evoke a lonely, vast space. Wind howls, ghostly unintelligible vocals appear and a post-apocalyptic isolation hangs.  On subsequent listens, new noises, snatches of rhythm and harmony became apparent and I found the unravelling nature of Mialle Tapes to be intriguing.

Hill has done well to maintain the aesthetic of his debut, whilst leading it into a new place. Mialle Tapes is available digitally on the great Feral Media label and – aptly – on cassette via Danish label, Phinery.

 

 

http://feralmedia.bandcamp.com/album/mialle-tapes

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Matt Wakeling's first LP was Kiss 'Double Platinum'. He is the host of 'Guitar Speak', an interview based podcast launching in mid 2016.

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