Noise, avante/ambient/harsh/industrial. Slow to evolve, ever changing, ranging from harsh to ambient, sometimes within seconds. CD retrospective of tracks released on a variety of comps, singles, etc over the course of the last 15 years or so. Portland’s Menche is unique in that he leans toward crisp static-like tones and seldom drones, though his pieces are certainly cinematic and visual, vivid if lurid. A true original noise artist Menche performed live in the early 90’s with all lowfi analog equipment (e.g. contact mics attached to ceramic bricks that were sloooowwwly grinded together generating low tones that about vibrated the walls down at the Nightbreak on Haight). Since then he has evolved to laptops but retains his roots in quality tones, not sampled digital nonsense. Great stuff, if creepy as hell.

CD 1:
1) heart-like throb and crunchy/crackly drones, spooky
2) somewhat jarring creepy tones, like a monster trying to escape from a box with weird gases escaping and blowtorches going off, about midway this dies out giving way to a hypnotic buzz, very colorful and visual feel
3) harsh stereo swirling, quiets midway, spooky
4) very chill, ambient, relatively brief
5) 1st minute: harsh crackly, white noise onslaughts, great stereo, stops cold then very sparse/chill, slow buildup of static noise and swirls then dies off again
6) harsh loud beginning, a quick die off then another slow electrical build
7) industrial pulsing feel, sounds like chains being drug over asphalt, low rumbling, goes through mostly minimal creepy changes but builds to loud wash
8) really nice harsh wash/drone to start, radio friendly length
9) live feel, hissy and strange
10) very industrial feel, with sounds like a distant battle, bombs, going off, creepy

CD2:
1) starts quiet, then slow buildups and bursts of harsh tones, eventually builds to a mildly pulsing cacophony of science fiction crickets
2) a beautiful droning wash, like a rainstorm, then turns a corner into something like being inside a big harddrive that is shorting out
3) another lovely wash of tones
4) a nice drone, like a million metal pipes rolling in a large hall, with harsh high frequency tones overhead
5) very long and complex piece, starts off very different from rest, very lush and pretty, goes through many mood changes but is mostly serene