By Phil Legard of Xenis Emputae

D-503 - Fir Street

Fir Street stretches over most of a 90 minute tape and begins with 'Fir Street Pt. 1' in which short pieces of a phone conversation float through a heavily delayed space. The delay sets the tempo, which is augmented later by repeating crashing sounds which eventually malfunction taking the track into more ambient soundscape-ish territory backed by mechanical loops and distant thunder. 'Fir Street Pt. 1'is rather hypnotic in parts and I found it to be a very relaxing head trip; varied, constantly mutating and not too harsh - very listenable. The following track, 'Steel Rings' sounds like insects trapped in a faulty machine and has a nice ambience. The second side commences with 'Ornithic' - a nice, short track which has the atmosphere of being alone on an alien planet with only birds for company. I like the chirping electronic sounds on this track especially. 'Industrial Park', on the other hand, is a loud, crushing track full of noise, distorted feedback and echoing clangs. The final track picks up where 'Fir Street Pt. 1' left off - the distant thunder and cars are this time overlaid with interesting creaks and tinkles of metal - very eerie,
especially when the loops fade it. This has the atmosphere of sitting in a car watching a storm unfold and along with 'Ornithic' is one of the best
tracks on the tape.

I enjoyed listening to this D-503 recording although some of the tracks were a bit over-long and the volume level seemed quite low, but all in all
excellent atmospheric noise.