I always thought Al Qaeda were a noise band, but this CD-R certainly proves me wrong. After a slew of releases on virtually every label imaginable, it was only a matter of time until Spain's awesome For Noise's Sake picked up on what these guys were doing. I should have read the description before playing this disc, as it clearly describes the album as "Drumless, bassless, [Al Qaeda] playing guitars, vocals, tapes, synths and oscillators," which is exactly what this disc is. Maybe I'm so thrown aback because I was preparing myself for a noise meltdown. Instead what I got when I played this disc was a track of blissful guitar scales, carrying me away into the California coastline.
The guitar part stays pretty much the same throughout the first 13-minute long track, with synths and samples trailing behind and creating nice accents. Totally what you would call a "headtrip". The second track then caught me a little off guard as it sets up a pulsating beat that could really go on either side of the noise/drone coin and doesn't answer that question till about six minutes of static and white noise in, when that same blissful, almost nostalgic guitar comes back in to remind you of something you once knew but chose to forget.
I'm not sure what AQ's intentions were when recording this album, but if it was to make me contemplative and almost sad, they did a good damn job. This is the best release I've ever heard from this group, and one of the finest from an always-awesome label. This one is going in my 'rainy day walk through the woods' playlist for sure. Really, the only thing wrong with this disc is how criminally short it is.
[Al Qaeda on Myspace]
[Buy Econo from For Noise's Sake]
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