Makeshift Hypnosis - Wasteland

Released: May 12

Marking his third release of the year, guitarist and noise connoisseur Makeshift Hypnosis brings us more of his trademark growling textures and cavernous echoes. The album consists of four tracks with some being heavier and more layered than others and shows a bit of an affinity for more ambient leaning than some of his previous releases.  He also incorporates some rather interesting electronic drones in the longest track on the album "Wasteland." At an epic twenty six minutes, it takes its time and meanders along with a dull roar of distortion in the background and multiple layers of drones that peep in and out of the mix at various points. The many different drone take up quite a bit of space all together but the ebb and flow of each keeps everything from becoming far too busy. With all of that said, it is (as most of his work) a rather dark piece that is fitting for its name. It feels like a sprawling work that emphasizes no particular direction, as if wandering through an actual wasteland with nothing in particular to head towards. 

There are two tracks on here that take the opposite approach though, with minimal layering, if any at all. "Entity" and "Sanctuary" seems to function primarily as guitar solo pieces with the former being heavily distorted and the latter being a much cleaner and spacier sound. I found "Sanctuary" to be a bit more interesting as Makeshift Hypnosis experiments a bit with some rapid arpeggios that work well with the reverbed and spacey tone of the guitar on this one. It's a pretty cool approach to making a soundscape and the self-imposed limitation works well for him in creating more complex phrases and multiple parts. That said, I'm always a big fan of the more layered approach, especially the heavy and almost noxious drone textures. But the alternating of these two very different approaches makes for a more varied listen through the entire album.