I’ve no problem to admit that I’m a bit of a “noise tourist.” I don’t know a whole lot of people in the scene, I don’t rush out to buy every single new tape drop from hot labels (and no affront to those who do!), I don’t always keep up with what’s hot and what’s not in noise, and a rather small percentage of my music collection is industrial noise.

But when it comes to noise, I’m the kind of tourist that many Finns are in the Canary Islands. The kind who visit the same place for months every winter, know the place rather well, know people there and perhaps even speak a bit of the language. A clumsy parallel, I know, but what I’m saying is that when it comes to noise, I may not be an “insider”, but despite that, I do listen to the music a lot, and have periods when I’ll buy a lot of noise/harsh noise/power electronics releases. And have been having these episodes for the past 20+ years.

I bought UK act Mutant Ape’s compilation What’s Left? during one such spell, at the same time as I dug into a lot of classics and prominent names of the time. This was around 2010, which was incidentally also the time I landed my first steady job and, for the first time in my life, had money to spend. Which meant I bought a horrible amount of music. I’d been listening to noise for years already, but operating on a student budget and having a wide array of interests besides – alcohol being a major one! – I really didn’t have the means to build up a noise collection with a plan. Instead, I amassed what I could via trades and whatnot.

So, about 16 years ago I started to somewhat systematically building up a foundation of a noise collection. Back then, an important guide to me was the then-fresh (and still running) Special Interests magazine and forum, and particularly whatever stuff Mikko Aspa of Freak Animal, Grunt, Northern Heritage, Clandestine Blaze and about a dozen other projects recommended on there. I mean, the guy knows his stuff, so why not pay attention when he recommends something?

I’m pretty sure it was via his recommendations that I landed upon Mutant Ape. The name was familiar already, as the project was both prolific and popular at the time. If it wasn’t Aspa, I’m pretty sure it was someone on the Special Interests forum who recommended this compilation in particular. And listening to it now, over 15 years later, it’s still very obvious why someone would recommend this.

I don’t exaggerate when I say this is absolutely one of my favourite harsh noise/power electronics releases of all time. After buying What’s Left?, I did buy some other Mutant Ape releases as well, but sadly, none came even close to the level of this compilation. So based on my limited knowledge of Mutant Ape, I would raise this as an essential release, not only by Mutant Ape, but within industrial noise in general. To me, What’s Left? was a foundational release in the sense that partially thanks to this, my tastes started to orient themselves in a more power electronics direction instead of harsh noise.

What appealed, and still appeals to me in this material is how it perfectly straddles that middle ground between the violent chaos of harsh noise, and the controlled viciousness of power electronics. There’s a lot of the feedback and chaotic, cacophonous rumbling of harsh noise, but it is usually presented in a power electronics format with structure, direction and control.

Mutant Ape also emphasizes atmosphere over sheer violence. This is perhaps what most appeals to me on What’s Left?. It’s sadism and hostility is less of an incidental nature, like that of a chance encounter on a dark alley, typical to a lot of in-your-face harsh noise, and more of the premeditated, precise and purposeful violence of an interrogator. There’s this beautifully total atmosphere of negativity and hostility that is all the more potent because it’s more of a threat than actualization.

What’s Left? is compilation, yes, but it has a very uniform sound. This makes the CD very album-like and the listening experience rather seamless, which is of course unequivocally positive. The material, lifted from three splits and a collection of three bizcard CDr’s also called What’s Left?, was all recorded in 2006, so I suppose it’s not surprising there’s a stylistic and sonic coherence here.

The cover photo is the CD version from 2008, released by Turgid Animal, incidentally co-run by George Proctor who also is Mutant Ape. Or was, as Mutant Ape ceased activities about ten years ago. There is also a tape version of the compilation, released in 2022, with the exactly same tracklist. Looking at pictures of the tape, I must say I like the starker contrast of the black-and-white art of the CD better than the black/gray of the tape.

Now, as said, I consider myself a bit of an outsider, or “noise tourist”, but if you’re willing to take a hint from one such, then here goes: get What’s Left?. Tape or CD, doesn’t matter. This is an outstanding industrial noise release, which certainly has a place in every collection.

---

In From The Vaults we take a dive into the record collection at Only Death Is Real HQ and write about about items of iconic stature or personal significance; rarities and oddities from the archives; obscure gems that deserve more attention; classics of yore deserving of a moment in the limelight; and so on.