Schloss Tegal is one of the most acclaimed dark sound manipulators around. Ultra dark and frightening ambient is what they have to offer us on “Black Static Transmission”, their fifth album. This release was out of print for a few years, and ha snow been re-released by Cold Spring. A powerful, full sound, in which many things happen, strange machinery, deep rumblings, massive drones, speech samples, strange metallic percussion… Dense and mechanical walls of sound in which you can easily lose yourself. An occult, otherworldy sphere surrounds this music.
“Black Static Transmission” deals with the subject of the anti-world, where time runs backwards and where we encounter cryptic alien transmissions. The mysterious mood is greatly enhanced by the use of EVP’s. As Richard Schneider of Schloss Tegal explains in an interview, “EVP is the use of tape recorders placed in certain locations to record the voices and communicate with the dead. Questions are usually asked by the researcher and then [they] play back the tape to hear the answers in the static void of the tape hiss and distortions”. An album with two parts, consisting of seven interesting ‘transmissions’ of a cold and shadowy world. The second part seems to be even more dense and deep, with deep basses, static sounds, radio waves and plenty of eerie voices. A very dark and mysterious creation, intelligently created and with an interesting concept, not something to consume easily.
