Diarmaid O Meara - Structured Noise

Structured Noise is the sort of thing Amnesty International would seek to make illegal under human rights laws. Sitting through the 72 long, long minutes of relentless, buzzing, angry noise is comparable to enduring a CIA waterboarding session. After a couple of tracks, I was rocking back and forth in a corner, confessing to my presence at Aden, on United 93 and in Dallas in ’63. Track names seem to confirm the intent to shock, frighten and appal – there’s a Murdering Disco, a Bitchbags and a Paranoia. It’s hard to know exactly who an entire album of this type of thing is really intended for – it’s a relentless dirge of brutal, joyless, repetitive and wholly soulless techno. When combined with ketamine and played in a dark arch full of topless gurners, it could result in a spastic approximation of dancing; other than that, it’s best left well alone. [Rab Shatner]