Joe Roemer of Macronympha fame once created a list of 100 essential noise releases. Breathing in Dead Flies was number 21 on that list. In fact, Mlehst had six entries on that list. To put that into perspective, that is the same number of entries as Incapacitants and two more than Merzbow. Now we all know that “top 100 lists” are often suspect, but it gives some sense of the influence of All Brentnall's work. This is a reissue of Breathing in Dead Flies,” which was Mlhest's first vinyl release from 1996 and “Cock Sucking Lips,” which was an extremely limited cassette from 1990/91.

I am reminded of an old joke where a bartender hires a piano player for the bar. The man writes the most beautiful compositions but titles them with obscenities. He comes out of the bathroom and forgets to zip up, and a waitress says “Did you know your zipper is down and your penis is hanging out?” He responds, “Know it? I wrote the bloody song!” Mlehst is like that. Songs like “Breast Milk Drainage,” “How to Eat Shit,” and “Cock Sucking Lips” don't necessarily have the same kind of feel as the actual song. For example “Bandaged and Broken” starts off with a beautiful kind of ethereal soundtrack that would be right at home in a horror film. This then kicks in suddenly to harsh noise.

What keeps this all interesting is the close attention to dynamics. There's a tension between the peaceful, soothing, ethereal segments and the sudden smash into harsh noise. This isn't standard harsh noise wall though, because there's a lot of feedback and plenty of things going on in the track to keep it interesting. For example, “Breathing in Dead Flies” is eerily pretty, with a quiet, haunting melody that goes throughout the piece. This is quickly wrecked when “Shitty Fingers” kicks in with a high-pitched feedback blast. This track is like a Venus flytrap that tries to pull you in with the barely audible voice buried in the mix which then suddenly kicks in with high-pitched noise blasts interspersed throughout. The “Breathing in Dead Flies” portion of the disc see-saws between these two extremes until the end.

Next the the disc shifts gears to the “Cock Sucking Lips” album. The opening track, “Two Way Lick,” is a jaunty little number that kind of reminds me of a game show theme song. This becomes more and more disintegrated throughout but still keeping that swinging beat. It feels totally out of place, but that's what makes it fun. “Playmate” is cut up and chaotic. In fact this entire section of “Cock Sucking Lips” seems to be a lot more experimental and raw. “Jack” features lots of bass and a woman singing, then we have a loop of a girl sing “Jack be nimble Jack be quick.” “A Fuck...” is pulsing bass with noisy field recordings and “In the Right Direction” brings in chipmunkified voices and really, really heavy bass that disintegrates into noise. “Hepatitis C” closes it off with one of the weirdest tracks on the album. I never thought I would hear “Mandy” by Barry Manilow incorporated into a noise track, but here we are. This is layered with voices and ambient noise, and it fits quite well. Barry would be proud.

Overall, both halves of this release showcase two very different sides of this artist. The first portion illustrates his more put together, well-constructed noise compositions. The second half is a lot more loose and experimental. Both are interesting and well done. You just don't want to leave it out on the coffee table when your in-laws come by (although you can probably get away with playing it and they wouldn't know any better).