This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
RH-8SB sounds more like the model number of an electronic gizmo than an album title. Actually, in the case of this latest release from Australian beat scientist Terminal Sound System — aka Skye Klein of sludge-metal duo Halo — it’s a little of both.
Like bizarre contraptions, the 10 lengthy instrumentals in this hour-long disc have been assembled from a seemingly endless stockpile of ragged beats, scratchy textures, insectile chitters, droning melodies, ringing tone generators and languid grooves. Their function? To generate their own self-sustaining magnetic fields, it seems. Cuts like Glit, TRMNL and Pulse conjure up a starkly empty yet vaguely claustrophic landscape that straddles the worlds of ambient, illbient, dub, and electronica, echoing the more experimental moments of DJ Spooky, µ-Ziq or Aphex Twin. Ultimately, though, you are left with the sensation that RH-8SB is a product untouched by human hands.
