LULL & BETA CLOUD & ANDREW LILES - 'Circadian Rhythm Disturbance Reconfigured'

CSR139CD (January 2012)
CD in digipak
Barcode: 823566506829



From England to the United States and back again... it all started as a simple drone project between LULL (aka Mick Harris of Scorn, ex-Napalm Death), and BETA CLOUD (aka Carl Pace), based on the concept of how insomnia can effect your thought patterns. Billows of powerful bass drones set to indistinct flourishes of temporary insanity, it was released as a limited 3" CD in 2008. Now proudly presented in a deluxe digipak edition on cold spring, the original track is there, but also included is a fierce remix track by none other than legendary sound artist Andrew Liles (NURSE WITH WOUND), with stunning new packaging and artwork. Fans of Lull and Beta Cloud will really sink their teeth into this one; what Liles has created here is not a simple remix but a raging, deconstruction as only he can do. A captivating listen for dark ambient and harsh noise fans alike.

Track listing:

1. Circadian Rhythm Disturbance (20:06)
2. Circadian Rhythm Disturbance (Another Toothpick) (21:12)

Reviews:

"This Lull & Beta Cloud disc is an outstanding twenty minute soundwork piece in which they’ve tried to bottle/record the essence of the state of insomnia... this disc is such a success... an example of the successful manipulation of sound into a concrete/concrète representation of a difficult to define idea... In a world where the remix can be used as something simple as a skew on a view to someone building a track from complete scratch, Liles is a man who prefers to destroy and rebuild... Where the Lull and Beta Cloud piece was confusing enough as it was, Liles sees a remix opportunity as instead of putting a spanner in the works but isolating the sound of the spanner’s damage itself. A very valid reissue, this record is an excellent example of both sound concept creation and the remix as a wrecking ball" (The Quietus)

"...a clouded-up fogfest of supreme fugginess which leaves the listener adrift in a supremely ambiguous zone for over 20 minutes and hence meets all the requirements of unsettling music in the “dark ambient” genre... Liles transforms the original completely, filling it out with horrifying explosions, scalding jet aircraft engines, sinister crackling fuzz and many other unpleasant incidents, completely undermining the menacing yet strangely soothing mood of the original near-blank murkoid statement. If we compare the two, I suppose Lull / Beta Cloud ask interesting questions about the nature and effects of insomnia, while it seems Liles is hell-bent on contributing to or even exacerbating the condition" (The Sound Projector).

"Lull – better known as Napalm Death’s Mick Harris – and Beta Cloud’s Carl Pace explore the state of insomnia, and their deep bass drones and snippets of intangible voices and sound effects recreate that dreadful state... The duo’s moody, fiercely tense sonic expanse, in which everything progresses in a state of near-stasis yet remains deeply involving, manages to eschew the clichés of “dark” music to create something that is so conceptually relevant it slips under your skin and haunts your thoughts without you even noticing... Circadian Rhythm Disturbance was a pretty brilliant approach to Dark Ambient in and of itself, meriting comparison with Thomas Köner at his most atmospheric. With Liles onboard to fuck things up in even more unsettling and intense ways, it has grown into a messy, haunting and unrelentingly powerful beast." (Dusted)

"[Circadian Rhythm Disturbance] is a slow and rumbling sigh as if the earth was recorded breathing out it’s pain and aggression... Here and there is a high Chirping undertone like cicadas on steroids that really pierces through and stabs at the listener hungry for attention. The remix by Andrew Liles is quite another tale... The serene yet mind shattering atmospheres is there yet replaced by jet engines roaring and insane machinery gone haywire... The hybrid that plays up before me is a tangled mass of industrial necromancy gone wrong and in a way brings forth something about the clone that was there from the beginning yet hidden beneath the more gentle surface. A burst of electrical strength in the pale and fruitless moonlight... well worth a listen if you are into noise shaped into machinelike dreams" (4/5, Heathen Harvest)

"Mick Harris's beatless excursions [with] the slight rhythmic undertow of gentle pummel here supplied by Beta Cloud's Carl Pace, underneath the lulling ambient shimmer and low, low shape-shifting drones... while it captures the hinterland between sleep and an attentive waking state, the end section delves deeper into denser and murkier terrain with lolling dark ambient reverberations, capturing the frustration and anxious moments of sleep deprivation. The Andrew Liles remix is altogether different, and with its recurring cuts, it seemingly captures cycles of interrupted sleep patterns. Liles' time with Nurse With Wound is brought to the fore with the sound abstractions on his 'Another Toothpick' remix... this haunting sound creation was ripe for rediscovery, and here alongside Andrew Liles's skull-smashing radical remix, it's a more than worthy (re)issue" (Compulsion Online)

"...a sonic description of what many insomniacs experience while they’re caught by that disturbing hypothalamic sensation after a long period of sleep deprivation or chronobiological disfunctions, sonically represented by an oppressive drone where other sonic stimulations such as alerts, chatters, chirps, pulses, clicks, trafic noises and so on have been turned by a fatigued consciousness into something extremely upsetting... Andrew Liles (Nurse With Wound), tips over the sonic pelting so that it seems he departs from “inner” spaces [...] by putting the emphasis on field recordings and gradually disturbing sonic hype, noisy streams [...] and boulder-strewn sonic paths within narrow sequences of pulses, disquieting harpsichord arpeggios and chimes, matsuri-like hits, interrupted by random disturbing sonic sketches such as squeaks, clinks, newborn screams and…shhhh…babies are sleeping!" (Chain D.L.K.)

"...impeccabile dark ambient e raffinata quanto persistente quiete concepiti da Lull e Beta Cloud idealmente come rappresentazione sonora delle alterazioni procurate dall’insonnia nello svolgersi del cosiddetto ritmo circadiano. La decostruzione operata da Liles sulla materia che raddoppia la durata del lavoro in questa sua rinnovata versione, come era presumibile, è radicale, scardinando le linearità del percorso tratteggiato ad arte da Mick Harris e Carl Pace sin dalle prime battute, con scricchiolii concreti, turbamenti di rilucenti acciai, acquosi scalpiccii, tonfi sordi e raffiche noise, marimba in autistico impasse, trasformandola in una nervosa, eccellente, suite..." (Blow Up)

"L’oscurità dei suoni e la struttura minimale del pezzo traducono la situazione limite in cui la mente non riesce a lasciarsi andare al sonno, o ne interrompe il ritmo a causa di intrusioni psichiche. L’inquietudine tematica e sonora è rivista da Andrew Liles nel suo stile personale, fatto di decostruzioni rumoristiche: la continuità e compattezza dell’originale viene sostituita prima da microframmentazioni sonore, quasi che il suono si infrangesse docilmente a terra, poi da boati intermittenti, fragori, basi sintetiche e una pioggia di piccole molecole noise che si muovono creando strutture circolari e para-ritmiche. Entrambe le tracce si fanno apprezzare, sebbene siano lontane anni luce per stile e finalità" (Darkroom)

"Ondanks het onderwerp heeft het origineel veeleer slaapverwekkende kwaliteiten: twintig minuten vol golvende drones in een patroon dat aan trage ademhaling doet denken, terwijl het diep onderliggende ritme herinneringen oproept aan een zomers ritje op een boemeltrein. [Andrew Liles'] klanken sluiten veel beter aan bij wat we zelf doen als we wakker liggen: onheilspellend start/stop gedreun, ratels, ritselende snoepverpakkingen, het angstige gekras van vingernagels op een metalen plaat, vliegtuigmotoren, nerveus elektronisch gesputter ("Cold" van Nurse With Wound is nooit veraf) en echo's van omvallende ijzeren dossierkasten." (Gonzo Circus)