Both of these artists have been making weird sounds since the 90’s. Brandal’s first release dates back to 1994 and according to the insert that came with this cassette It’s A Lunken has at least been recording music since 1998. This fact doesn’t necessarily mean it is any better than some 15 year old kid banging out some synth jams in his bedroom but it does give you a sense of their age. Brandal hails from Norway and makes dark ambient music while It’s a Lunken is in fact 5 dudes from the U.K.

Side A starts off with Andres Brandal “Trafalmadore Part 1,” composed of creaky drones, bubbly bass tones, clacking metal, and plenty of fades, backward effects, and synth swells. If I would have to guess I would have to say this music was made on a computer. It has a very similar vibe to a lot of academic computer music without all the birds and nature sounds. It features a lot of the higher end frequencies that are more prevalent in computer music almost like if you stuck a contact mic on a pair of scissors and cut out the sound of each snip. The problem I have with this recording as well as a lot of academic computer music is the fact that it is meant to sound natural but made in a very unnatural way. What is suppose to sound like the rumble of the deep Earth sounds like noise slowed down to the point where the natural characteristics of the sound are completely lost.

The second side of this tape features the music of It’s a Lunken. The music on this side is a bit more inconsistent considering the fact that these records are spread over the last 11 years. It’s a Lunken features some of the same style drones as Brandal that seem to make things seem a bit uneasy because the drones are a little offset to make things a little unbalanced. This gives it all that dark cold vibe. According to the info I can find on It’s A Lunken the band features five guys Burnthebus Yacky on guitar, beatings, and instruments; Dill Wuffer on vocals, guitar, and instruments, James Statick on drums, Thomas Paige on guitar, and fifth member who probably isn’t present on this tape because of the fact that he does projections for the group. The guitars on this group come and go and use a lot of silence and sustain. The drums are very distant to the point where you don’t realize anyone is playing drums. I’m guessing the drums might be metal objects played way in the back more for an ambient effect than a percussive one which gives it a bit more of an industrial feel. All in all I enjoyed this side a bit more than the first. It didn’t seem to drag on as long as side A and featured more tracks so things moved a lot quicker. According to the It’s A Lunken online store this edition of 30 tape is already sold out but I kinda of doubt this review would make you wanna go out and buy it anyways. 3/10 -- Jon Lorenz (9 December, 2009)