TranscendNoise

Labour by Clawing Finney´s poems exist as the sound of his voice. Forming the band Clawing with Austin Gaines and Jeff McLeod the artist released the album Spectral Estate (Dullest Records) in early March and shortly thereafter a very different album,  Gospel with the composer Sivash Amini on Opal Tapes. Now Clawing have blessed us with yet another release, the 30-minute epic Labour tackling the pandemic of addiction in a personal and yet surrealist way. Moving to dark music aficionado label Grey Matter Productions for this and fittingly releasing on Halloween, Clawing as a band also sees the addition of new members T. Platt, J. James and K. Miller to the mix.  In between the terrifying soundscapes of his fellow artists Finney´s voice surfaces like speech beyond language. In Spectral Estate Finney, blurs the lines between reality and dream, visions and fears constitute a perception impregnated by sexual abuse and depression. On Gospel, these terrors step into the...

In their previous album , Ones And Sixes Low laid much of the groundwork for Double Negative . Still, this records sounds fresh and like an unexpected move. Here the band abandons many tropes and their known modus operandi for a noise-heavy aural experience. A set of songs that shed simplistic forms and structures to build a haunting piece of music that points towards the capabilities of modern dream pop and rock that most bands will never fully embraces or consider. Writing the first draft for this review, I fell into the rabbit hole of analysis (read it below). Trying to actually tell something meaningful about the album ended up in a track by track description of the twists and turns Double Negative takes and the aural changes the whole experience entails. Rereading my own words, it felt like a telling failure in capturing the onslaught of sound. Listing in on Low´s previous work, Double Negative feels like a secret accusation and the breaking point of comprehensib...

Mono - The Last Dawn / Rays Of Darkness I admire Mono. They´ve been around for fifteen years now and have continued to convey their idea of crushing beauty in the form of noise, melancholic melody and wordless narrative. After For My Parents in 2011, my favorite album of that year, the question of “what´s next?” began to creep up in my mind. Even though Mono have their own musical idea and have been following it throughout their career, the criticism of repetition does hold trues as for many other instrumental band. I guess not a single fan would contest on the idea of another Mono record centered on the band playing with an orchestra, but as some, the band itself might have felt that they were constraining their energy too much. Thus came the idea for a double album and an approach akin to “back to the roots”. Funny fact and unpopular opinion: My favorite album by Mono, to this day, remains their first effort Under The Pipal Tree . Better known as the Mono album the band t...