Christopher Forgues was one of my first introductions to noise, at a time when I was buying everything Load records was releasing in the early 2000's. I purchased the album "Royal Paint With the Metallic Gardner..." and was initially perplexed but intrigued to challenge myself with repeated listens. Over time it grew on me and to this day has become a nostalgic reminder of my early explorations into noise.

I was fortunate to finally meet CF in 2007 at a house show we played together in Portland...they say meeting artists you are a fan of can often be disappointing, but this was not at all. He was a very down to earth and approachable person just hanging out with everyone and seemed stoked to be there. We even traded some early AAD tapes for his Unskilled Labor catalog. To my surprise I actually had a good set that night (with some unexpected table surfing) and I remember him whispering in my ear "how the hell am I supposed to follow that?" which was flattering...but of course his set was awesome, affirming why Kites was the most exciting headliner to witness on that tour, further solidifying my love for that project.

All these years later you can probably imagine my excitement when I discovered his most recent endeavor, Universal Cell Unlock, is a slight return to his more abrasive roots (while also going further into new directions of course). So this felt like a good opportunity to release something by him, which I have wanted to do for a very long time.

I also have fond memories of my first encounter with Daniel La Porte aka Door of Network Glass. He booked a show for me once in his basement in New Brunswick, NJ and hosted me for the night as well.

Door was one of those people I immediately liked, but couldn't really explain exactly why...an enigma. Needless to say I kept contact and a close eye on his activity ever since and have found his work (sonically and visually) has always been a unique, exciting and forward-thinking escape from the trappings of experimental music and even most so called "sound art".

So between my own experiences with these two individuals combined with their history together as kindred spirits (going back even before their Earth Crown/Kites split LP in 2009), for me personally, this release definitely has a special sentimental feel to it.

Here is a brief description of the content on this release...

BTW, there is no A or B side to this split, you can listen in whatever order you prefer...

The Network Glass side "69CRACKED(INHELL)" consists of raw samples and found sounds of typical inner city street ambience as a backdrop to artificial sounding male/female voices (not sure if it's AI or real people) that smoothly transition from ear to ear with random information being fractured and basically rendered useless (aside from it's pure sound appeal)...dialogue ranging from psuedo-profundity, existential pessimism and downright absurdity...a blatant reminder of how redundant and pointless human speech can be majority of the time.

The UCU side "City Dweller" begins with sparse processed bird-like sounds that chirp and echo off the walls and tunnels of an abandoned urban dystopia, fading into rhythmic unidentifiable electronics and industrial percussive bangs that steadily build up into motorik synth noise coupled with delirious vocals, strange whispers and aggressive piano stabs...all abruptly dismantled by an explosively cathartic finale.