J BUTLER “Found” C30 (self-released)
Butler’s a guitar and synth man. How do I know?
I’ve read the description, which is a pretty key activity if you want to do
this writing thing (pro tip). Because he’s a guitar and synth man, Butler’s
also prone to experimenting with tone, length, mood – pretty much anything you
can experiment with on the ambient and drone side of things. Fortunately,
Butler’s got a knack for wringing every last drop of emotion from his setup.
Synths like electricity course across the sound
spectrum, and twinkling melodies accompany it as it darts from node to node.
Starlight triggers nostalgia, but it’s still the byproduct of massive nuclear
reactions. Heart holds as much as it can, can only burst as it fills to the
breaking point. And here “Found” washes the chilly shores as it cycles through
its delicate entreaties. Easy, then, to shut one’s eyes and get lost in the
environment Butler creates.
--Ryan
TL3SS “EP I” C42 (Terminal Frost Productions)
This is wish fulfillment, isn’t it? Cold
electronics, “Terminal Frost”? Sounds like there’s a Floridian trying to escape
the heat in any way possible… And who can blame them? TL3SS’s EP I is like an Alaskan glacier slowly
chipping itself into the sea as the air warms around it, a last-ditch effort at
overcoming the encroaching heat death of the universe … or at least our planet.
And I have to ask, is TL3SS a robot? If so, there’s a much better chance that
TL3SS is simply setting the stage for its own personal existence following the
mass extinction of the human race.
If it gets that far, that is. Let’s hope it
doesn’t!
Still, there’s a pessimism in EP I, or is that an optimism? Depends on
the perspective, I guess, with the balance tipping in favor of the machine. Who
knows what elemental programming courses through the data ports of whatever
battery center constitutes the heart! In the end, we are meat, and we will
decay. In the end, TL3SS will last far longer, and rule in our stead.
Or just exist and perform tasks; not exactly
sure what “rule” means either.
--Ryan
SWAN WASH “Swan Wash” (Sister Cylinder)
This was that, when we guessed how to scrub a
swan so that it would be proper clean and not just “nature clean,” whatever
that meant, my high school science teacher! Jeez. This Swan Wash is darkwave-y
sweetness with lots of delay and hammering low end. A power trio, three
imaginary boys! With guitar strings that chime and drums and bass that pummel,
it’s easy to scrub Swan Wash like an actual swan and behold the churning pain
beneath. Spitting back into the face of convention to battle the ennui of
modern living, Swan Wash keep it close, keep it secret, and let us all in on
it.
Well , we chosen few anyway.
Sure to please the Alternative Nation set still plugging away at what passes for the
daily grind, Swan Wash is a
throwback, a delectable morsel of treated guitar and driving rhythm. Make sure
you figure out how to get your hands on a copy if you’re going to be reenacting
any movies John Cusack happened to be in. My Better Of Dead cosplay group is getting together next week.
--Ryan
CUBE “Wet Housing” (Anathema Archive)
Cube! What are you, Cube? Grisly sonic
tectonics break the geometric surface, obliterate the foundation. It comes
fast, it comes slow, it comes however Cube wants to do it, to destroy itself
and the pedestal upon which it’s displayed. Damaging dub action meets the
nocturne, eine kleine klubmusik, but
where mannequins are posed motionless and the music makes them fall apart.
Their limbs first, obviously, legs and arms, they fall over and come apart
further, heads fall off, some split at the torso. Then the pieces rumble to
life and move more than they did when they were part of a whole. This is the
mystery of Cube, the mystery of Wet
Housing and what it stands for in direct relation to a mass of plastic body
parts, and the mystery of Anathema Archive’s involvement in all this. If we’re
sure about anything, we’re sure no one’s up to any good. If we’re sure about
anything, we’re sure this is in our skin and blood.
Which just so happens to be marked as
“Evidence.”
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
--Ryan
AMONG THE ROCKS AND ROOTS “Raga” C90 (Orb Tapes)
Oh, no, please, don’t even try to peg Richmond,
Virginia, duo Among the Rocks and Roots. There’s so much shift here that
pinning down the band would be a fool’s errand. Ostensibly metal, ATRAR mix in
so many other different styles and elements that you’re guessing almost as
constantly as you’re reaching for the rewind button, ready to relive one weird
and incredible passage after another. And you’re dealing with passages, not
tracks. The four compositions on Raga stretch
for a total of 90 minutes. That’s … a lot of music per track.
Death metal and crust collide with hardcore and
noise rock, plus a heavy dose of atmosphere that would sound out of place on a
hidden Melvins track (those drums can get so airy!). You gotta fill
twenty-minute-long tracks with something other
than massive riffs and galloping beats, right? We can’t all be Olympic athletes. So ATRAR get
positively shamanic between bouts of chaos, floating meditatively over liquid
bass and introducing positively sing-song vocals (see “War Song”) or an
ethereal guest spot (Laura Merina on “Salvation”). It all feels like an
enormous pagan ritual celebrating the decay of the world or the reversion to
simpler means. At any rate, Raga is a
triumph of musicianship, and the untraceable pathways blazed through it reveal
delightful surprises at every turn.
--Ryan
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