Review Summary: Two artists in the same field come together on this record to create something so stunning, so shocking, and so very splendid.
It is very hard to put, not only the names of both artists in this review, but also the name of the entire album. So I am going to abbreviate Lost Salt Blood Purges as LSBP, and 'Movements Viewed Through A Variety Of Lenses' as just Movements.
Movements is a split LP between LSBP and Volcanic Queen, two artists in the same genre of experimental noise music that tinkers with vinyl records, tape manipulation, amplifier feedback, and basically any other noise the artists can find. That's part of the beauty of noise music; artists will take whatever they hear and distort it, equalize it, add an echo, or anything else to create some beautiful or harsh soundscapes. Movements is a perfect example of both the "beautiful" and "harsh" aspect of noise.
This album starts with four tracks from LSBP. However, they don't separate into different pieces of work. They all blend into one another. The first track, Hevrh, starts out with such minuscule sounds, that the listener might have a hard time even figuring out if the music is playing or not. But it is, and it takes about a minute for these sounds to come into full display. Some chimes with shrill high frequencies and a lush pad come together to form that cold, bone-chilling atmosphere on this track, which persists through dizzying rhythms and catastrophic waves of sound that will decimate your stereo field. That's what LSBP does best, I think. He manages to create soundscapes so dark and beautifully mysterious. On the album Only The Youngest Grave, we get 102 minutes of that quality presenting itself. LSBP's work only has a brief moment in the spotlight here, at around 16 minutes in its entirety. However, that's still enough time for this half of Movements to imprint itself on your ears and stay there for a very long time.
Volcanic Queen's half is almost entirely different. Each track on LSBP's section of Movements stayed approximately the same length, ranging from 2-5 minutes. Volcanic Queen's tracks range from less than a minute long, to over nine minutes long. Those are just his first two tracks on here. The first one, Al Pasar El Invierno, is a seconds-long crescendo of heaping, overflowing noise that nearly consumes you and shoots you head-first into the next track, Glaciers Form At High Elevations. This track is like the last few seconds of Al Pasar El Invierno stretched out over acres of land to form stunning marvels of nature. It's exactly what the title suggests. Volcanic Queen maintains that extraordinary imagery through all his work on this LP. Although it can be overpowering, that is what it's supposed to do. When someone looks at tall, snow-white mountains, they want their breath to be knocked out of them by the sheer monstrosity of it all. That's what Volcanic Queen's work does to the listener here.
On Movements, we have two entirely different works of art from two eerily similar artists. It's amazing in almost every way. Movements was actually the first album I ever pre-ordered, and it definitely lives up to the excitement and glorious power I wanted from this album. Two artists in the same field came together to showcase just how interesting noise music can be. LSBP's work is insanely intricate at times, while Volcanic Queen's work drowns you in its immersive volume and waves of white noise. It's worth many listens. Pick this up for yourself and prepare to be blown away.
