From Norfolk, England, Norfolk Trotter is a HNW project by sound/conceptual artist Michael Ridge (Quagga Curious Sounds, Zebra Mu). The sound source contributing to this release is from several flints rubbed together, delivering a 46 minute tectonic wall, largely static with some shift changes and some rhythmic elements.

mridge.bandcamp.com
michaelridge.wordpress.com
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Review from Musique Machine by Roger Batty:

Paramoudra is the new full-length release from this UK wall noise project, which has a natural/ elemental theme running through all of its work. This release comes in the form of an artily presented CDR, which features a single forty six minute slice of dense & raging-yet-subtle altering wall-craft.

Behind Norfolk Trotter is Norwich based multimedia artists Michael Ridge, who's been active on & off in the wall-noise scene since around 2010. His first project wall project was Acerbitas- this run between 2010- 2014, putting out around 14 releases. He started the Norfolk Trotter project in 2016, and so far put out eight releases under the name- so he’s not the most prolific, in the often highly prolific HNW/ static noise scene- but whenever he does put something out, it’s worth checking out as he always gives a lot of thought to both the creation & the themes of his walls.

As mentioned early on, it's a rather arty CDR release- the black paint smudged CDR comes in a clear CD case, and this features on it ’s front outside a veiny splodge of black & white paint. And on it’s back a numbered brown craft paper sticker- this features two monochrome pictures of rocks or flints, basic track details, web address & label logo, and pen numbering- mines number 8 of 37. Also on the back, we get an L shaped mass of black paint, and to top the package off there are three small pebbles actually inside the case. It’s always nice to see labels put a bit of arty thought in releases, and this one looks most effective. This is actually the first release from Perpetual Abjection- a Bangkok based label who are going to be focusing in on releasing ltd handmade HNW release- so I very much look forward to seeing more stuff from them.

Anyway, let's move onto the noise within- the single track here comes in at the 46.17 mark. And it starts off been built around a blend of two or three layers of roughshod juddering- there‘s a tunneling & muffled low-end, a crisper constant descending static tone, and a semi- rattling mesh of spluttering thinner static haze- these blends together to create a fairly industrial, yet persistently earthy wall- which brought to my mind a group of industrial revolution era stream powered vehicles making their way across rough & muddy British countryside. As the tracks progresses the layers start to gentle shift & alter, so at first I make out a keener ball bearing buzzing around the low-end, then later a more rapid rattle feel making its way through the whole wall- as if the vehicles are starting to subtle break internally, yet still manage to go on. At around the mid-way point the tunnelling low-end becomes blunter & droning, and this is joined by initially by a fairly pronounced mechanical chopping sub-tone, but this soon seems to start fading & bouncing around like a broken spring inside the 'wall', creating this most effective feeling of movement. Also we get this looped almost rhythmic rapid darting pulse buried deep within the walls mass, as we move on from this point the judders seem to become less defined & split slightly in their loops, which once again creates the feeling of the machines rapidly breaking internal- but through it all we still get the persistent pulse, which at times almost takes on a primitive groove feel.

It’s always nice to hear new stuff from Mr. Ridge, as you're always guaranteed thoughtful & creatively produced work- and Paramoudra is no exception to this. If you enjoy subtle altering industrial-tinged wall matter, you really need to pick up a copy of this release. And as I mentioned this comes in a fairly scene generous edition of thirty-seven copies- so you should still now be able to snag a copy.

3/5
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Review from Rubber Axe Zine by Rudolf Schütz:

I won’t say I don’t know nothing about the many underground genres, in more than 20 years I have had the opportunity to learn a lot. Sure, I don’t listen to many niche genres regularly, but at least I try to have a little knowledge about them.

Noise, industrial noise, harsh noise and all the different subgenres, this is nothing new under the sun, of course. And lately I’ve started to dive again into the strange world of multitude of projects, DIY recordings and art associated with it.

One of the artists I had the opportunity to get to know through their ouput, is Michael Ridge and his project Norfolk Trotter. Due to the courtesy of Polwach Beokhaimook I’ve received Norfolk Trotter’s album “Paramoudra”, released in the limited edition of 37 CDr copies through his specialty HNW label Perpetual Abjection.

And that’s where the art comes to life here, even if it sounds pretty unbelievable. But the simple technique to enhance the experience of the listener really works and I have to commend Polwach for the inventive approach to production.

The noise contained in this silver disc… well… when I’ve received it, I eagerly put it into the player and… it’s noise! Well, at least for anyone not familiar with HNW stuff. Yes, I’d guess a great majority of my friends, even the fans of many extreme genres would put the headphones down in sheer horror and make a few unfavorable remarks. Don’t blame them though, it takes some time to adjust. Or not.

But with HNW, you just can’t play a CD at random, there is a method in madness (if you will).

And the build up in Paramoudra is slow, but soon enough (relatively speaking, of course), you will find nice drum loops getting out from the wall of statics and, thankfully, they don’t stay the same for long.

This album won’t be a relaxing experience, my head was droning and won’t deny a slight earache 🙂 but I would rank this experience as rewarding and certainly interesting. It has changed me a HNW listening survivor, right?

I am now definitely eager to explore the vastness of sounds and static of noise/HNW to a greater extent and I hope I will be able to introduce to readers of the Rubber Axe webzine the good folks behind those projects.

So, do you have what it takes to jump headlong into this audio-nightmarish world, where your worst fears take the almost real shape? Then look no further than this release.