The Siamese Pearl - Death-Darting Eye

Living the city life has limited my time for reviews (all my tapes aren't with me either) so I will do reviews when I can from now on.

Today, I will look at The Siamese Pearl, which happens to be Carlos from Opus Finis' experimental project.

I received this from Dillan of Ferveur Noire's distro and mainly bought this tape due to my interest in his minimal synth project stated above.

I've listened to this one time and didn't give the tape much attention. Now seems like a good time more than ever.

The physical tape comes in a hand-designed jewel case with the tape and booklet with lyrics/credits. Whoever buys this will not get two copies exactly the same and that is pretty neat in my book.

Side A begins with heavy synths and atmosphere not like Carlos' more known (if following the genre he/people put his project in).  Grunts with a lot of delay come in before the  first song is over.

The next track of what appears to be "Hermetic Hermit" sounds very minimal with reverb-drenched vocals.

"Night Scepter" comes in patiently with many layers of analog textures. A synth progression sinks in along with some thumps from a drum machine and the track builds of that. Little-but obvious structure forms and the vocals come through with lyrical content that is very bleak and dark.

"Chimera" drops in with many different noise textures that is unlike anything Carlos has done to my knowledge and is refreshing to hear. No lyrics in this track.

"Odepidus of the Black Oriface" is the last track for side A and one of the shortest, which brings the listener back to the overall creepy vibe of this tape.

Side B starts with "Attributable Decay" jumps in with many synth-laden layers and signature vocals sacked on top of each other. The track itself is very entrancing.

"Turnip Blood" reminds me of an death industrial track, but less obvious. Very minimal and extremely to the point. "lead in veins" can be heard over and over until the dam breaks and the track is dead.

"Axe" is the most memorable track on this tape mainly due to the militant drumming on the track. I'll go ahead and say this has a much more martial industrial vibe to it. Vocals key in and out at appropriate moments and resonates throughout the composition. A personal fave.

The last track "He's Not Kind To Other Wraiths" is not only an odd name, but is the final track on the cassette. To me, this could be intentional noise/atmosphere or could be filler to complete this side of the track. Either way, the track is listenable and not forgettable.

Listening to this tape now, I kind of wish I could have the mp3 files to jan on my ipod. This album had great potential for much play-throughs. I enjoyed the overall aspect of the tape and I really liked how every track was different.

I am not sure if you can check this out anywhere, but can be found on discogs much for a much higher price than I paid it for: