This is a project from Costa Rica i was not aware of, with several releases already, all of them this year's. It is an independent act by a guy named Eduardo Tencio, who is creating the music all by himself. I would say that the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" does not apply here, because the sickness of the album art here can easily describe the sickness of the album.
Aracnophobia (Arachnophobia: the fear of spiders and other arachnids) plays a mixture of dark ambient and noise, the two bastard sons, the black sheep subgenres of electronic music, and when used properly, they are super effective to a sane person's mental well being. This is one of his early releases that came out this February, clocking 26 minutes, which makes it unclear for me if its a full length or an EP/demo. I am, most of the times, in the mood for such music and i was inclined towards this one because of the interesting cover and song titles.
As the album unfolds, the first song starts with distorted noises and a voice talking. What he says is indistinguishable, but of no importance as well, the result is pretty haunting anyway. The music is atonal and does not follow any pattern or structure, from the first two and a half minutes you have the idea of what you're going to listen to. The second song is richer in sounds, it continues with stinking screams but has a couple of nice samples and a basic weird sounding bass, which dims the room further more. The next song seems like it is a bit louder than the other two, it does not give anything new to the listener, it maintains the album's position and breeds the darkness.
The second half of the album contains the strongest tracks off it, with three tracks that contain various distorted sounds apart from the primary background noise. The fourth track is my favourite, for a really high pitched blare it has, not used in the rest of the album. The last two songs are the longest, over six minutes each, they are murky and ominous, just as the rest of the album. A zestful album, as a whole.
When i first gave a listen to this via bandcamp, the end of each track was brusque, and i thought that it was meant to be a long one track divided into pieces, so i downloaded it to see if it flows like that. Sadly, it didn't, so a downside of the album is the untimed and sloppy endings of each song. It might sound like its not that serious, but in dark ambient a non-stop monotonous album can inject madness in your head, whereas an album that takes stops every now and then, loses its power.
Oh, I just found out this review, you should have posted it on my facebook to share it. Thanks by the way. I'd say it may be a bit late, but I'll give it a share.
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