Intensity is a varied creature. There’s no question ten billion decibel whiskey-chugging amp-destroyers earn the adjective (most of the time), but vaguer/quieter types burrow the psyche too, obviously. Near Purity pairs two of the So-Cal desert’s truest intensity-bearers on one singular C16. Watching Him Die is an inner vision/testament of Jeff and Greg Witscher (of Rainbow Blanket/Men Who Cant Love), recorded deep in a familial dark night of the soul. Three anguished tracks of brotherly rage, intimate themes, and Long Beach longing. Harsh noise at its nakedest. Whitman’s side-long side, “The Rise and Fall of Ken Miller,” is a return to the Beaumont loner’s earliest unsane fucked-folk style. An apoplectic fit of pots, pans, loony bin voices and stringed garbage. Barn-thrash for the chicken coop crowd. Lace-stenciled tapes in color fold-out j-cards, banded with blur-paint denim strips, and sealed with pins of artwork by Greg Witscher. Edition of 100.