Masonna

Spectrum Ripper

(c)1997 Cold Spring Records

Review by Neil St.Laurent

Thanks to Cold Spring for the CD

The name Masonna may seem unfamiliar to you, but it is very likely that the entire noise genre is foreign to you. Those that are familiar with Japanese noise may know the name Masonna already. For those that have never heard any of the "noise" genres (this is far removed from grindcore and noisecore, which are entirely different) be forewarned that they are quite different from anything else.

"Spectrum Ripper" embodies a chaos of random noise and sound, some of which is pleasing, some of it not as pleasing. Whereas artists like Brighter Death Now take the foreboding, dark, and generally slow droning approach, Masonna seeks to destroy all that is melody and harmony with a completely cacophonous style. Listening closely though you can find that patterns do emerge from the chaos (or in mathematics terms, there are potentially attractors to be found).

The general feel is towards a technological disturbance (at times it sounds like a war with two distinct sides, but that isn't consistent), in terms of modern electronics that are falling apart, with layers of vocals on top that range from sounding afraid of the ensuing chaos to sounding in command of the destruction. It is actually the vocals that are the most confusing, in terms of expression of emotion they seem quite inconsistent, or rather they change very fast from fear to dominance; although the pace of the music is extremely fast, the vocal emotional changes are at a pace slightly too high.

Masonna's music is potentially comparable to Tribes Of The Neurot, with a little bit of the odd sounds of Coil or ElPh, and certainly at a tempo far greater than any of those. Unfortunately it overall sounds a little fragmented, too often the vocals are left supporting an otherwise quite silent component, in the areas where the vocals are better layered it does sound a lot better. This problem really leads to a lack of emotion; while "Spectrum Ripper" is certainly very abrasive, it just doesn't quite capture a strong feeling of aggression, rage, or pain.

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