The Answer Is In The Beat

Bran(…)Pos: Den Of Ordure And Iridescence LP (Resipiscent Records, 2013)

July 14, 2013 at 12:09 am | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Easily the most “no seriously, what is this?” record of the week. “Tin Tract Mine” starts off side A with some grotesque, choking, slurping vocal work, and after a minute and a half, some wavey stun-ray synths come in, followed by some more layers of shredding, flesh-melting synths, and more chopped up creepy voices. Around 5 minutes is when it all comes together to a wall of headfuck noise, but it’s not quite as dense and impenetrable as it might seem. Lots of layers and sounds messing with your head, but you still feel like you can trace everything. Around 7 minutes some pulse-beats come in, along with some high-pitched, rapid synth sounds dancing hard-panned between the speakers. The vocals start to get more tortured and zombie-like, and gets really crazy for the last minute and a half. “Sawed Off At Plasticized Forest” begins with some random stop-start electro-acoustics, as well as some uncomfortable bursts of deep strings, and some drill-like electronics. A rhythm seems to emerge and it sounds like the strings are sawing away in tune to it. Then it all goes quiet, and the strings slowly emerge from the black again. Another build with strings and squirmy electronics, and then the last minute is quiet again except for bare, lone strings. Side B is taken up by the epic “Lioness”, a truly impressive work featuring ghostly voices, bird caws, tympanis, horror soundtrack synth atmospheres, and so much more. It almost sounds like electric thumb pianos playing the melody, but maybe those are guitars or synths? It’s hard to tell. Can’t understate how epic those tympanis make this thing sound. Not to mention the whistly, bubbly synths, the cymbals in the background, the part when the synths sound like popcorn popping, the rhythm that comes in around the 10 minute mark… Wow, just wow.