The Corpse of the Mother God - The Happiest Place

 Released: April 26

A new side project of Spite Cathedral and Allan Zane, The Happiest Place is hard to, well, place. It consists of two long form tracks about fifteen minutes apiece with the second being literal reversal of the first. The first of these two, the original, is a slow burning pile of noises that meld together in smoldering fashion. It has a base of low grinding noise that feels a bit like a rusted blade trying to agonizingly grind through sheet metal that is accompanied by a spacious bit of reverberated pad that gives a rather cavernous feel to the track. It makes a rather nice juxtaposition and foundation for all the other little random weirdness to happen. The other sounds that pop in infrequently seem to almost never be repeated - small clunks, a metallic screech, a short rattle. It becomes like a bleak journey through a smog filled landscape that has you bump into random and unpredictable objects. 

The reversal of this track left me with much of the same impression. For much of it, it felt strikingly similar, of course it would though. But those moments of random noise events were what really changed the sound for me. It was interesting because although they may not seem memorable on first listen, hearing them in reverse suddenly reminded me and recontextualized them. It gave that feeling of reversal completely, like we had just walked through the landscape and now were watching all of the progress slowly revert. It’s a rather interesting dynamic that I would highly recommend listening to in one continuous listen so you can really get the experience.