ROPAL JAGNU “Silo” C20 (OJC Recordings)




Ever wonder what your guts sound like when represented by musical instruments? Ropal Jagnu surely has. They/he/she/it (I’ll go plural “they” for now) have stuck their heads inside the open abdomen of a living thing and used it as inspiration for their music, which is a form of seasick synthesizer freakout. Silo, a noun having nothing to do with guts, for some reason, sort of resembles noise rock in that there’s drums and distorted/buried vocals (and weird, trippy guitar) along with the synth. And that synth – it’s pushed to the fore for 10 minutes on each side, sounding suspiciously like a street-corner politician (or preacher) punctuating his points for effect. If a synthesizer could literally pump its fist in the air, it would sound like what’s going on in the middle of “Silo” (the track).

“Ripple,” side B, sounds like a confrontation between R2-D2 and a bunch of alien space thugs. It’s better than the Grateful Dead’s fucking “Ripple,” that’s for GODDAMNED SURE.

(Nick: ¯\_()_/¯)

Anyhoo, Silo’s certainly a welcoming and rewarding twenty minutes if you need a combination of punk distilled to pixels and a malfunctioning arcade game slowly melting down from the inside.



--Ryan Masteller