As Shield of Heracles, sound artist Devin Angiolieri will sometimes create one-off “cassette rips”–overwrites of previously existing tapes that retain the originals’ title. His latest is The Golden Ball, a noisy, beat-driven collection of experimental pieces.
SIDE ONE begins with a snippet from the source tape; some cheery, kid-friendly narration rendered disconcerting by interjections of static, which finally wipe out the original audio altogether. The first Shield of Heracles track to appear is a jaunty number that one might imagine hearing on a busted Atari console, all chintzy bleeps and scraping lows. From there, we transition into a series of absolutely filthy beats, creeping, guttural things that contain all sorts of blown-out bass, glitchy sound effects, and lumbering trap percussion. SIDE TWO is an extended rhythmic collage built around twisted, echoing vocal samples that swirl, shrieking like pixelated ghouls, overtop a hard-hitting, faintly dubby drum loop. Fans of grimy synth exploration, this one is for you.
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