[reviews] afe101cd
amon vs. mortar: amon vs. mortar

"Amon vs. Mortar" by Amon vs. Mortar and the CD-R has eight untitled tracks, or well, they're entitled "Part I" through "Part VIII". For me that just about equals "Untitled". The artwork - by Gydja - is nice and minimal and depicts landscapes with rocks and it "feels" a bit vulcanic in origin. Which can also be because of the colouring.

Amon is Andrea Marutti, who is the owner and founder of Afe Records and next to Amon active under Never Known as well as his own name and several other pseudonyms. Mortar is Moreno Daldosso and even though he has quite a discography I never heard from him before. Like Andrea he also runs a label and in his case it is Murder Release who mainly released ultra limited cassette by the also Italian Maurizio Bianchi.

This release has gorgeous droney sounds. Minimal modulations and additional noises generate the vulcanic atmosphere which we already saw on the cover. All tracks are created by both artists, except for two. The third part is a Mortar solo-piece, while the fourth part is by Amon. And the two solo tracks are the fun part of this release: they enable you as listener to see who did what in the tracks. The gritty noise manipulation by Mortar versus the layered organic soundscapes by Amon - the balance is very well found. The album could perhaps use a little more variation at moments, but that's a matter of taste. A statement in minimal drone structures for everybody who looks beyond their imagination.

[Bauke]