Dean Hurley — Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond

Dean Hurley's Anthology Resource Vol. I, a compiled forty minutes of underscore and menacing sound design, sat oddly in its album format. Originally appearing in David Lynch's revived Twin Peaks, now untethered, tracks felt disjointed, wandering; as labyrinthine, and cavernous with potential readings as the show they lived in.

Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond demystifies things a little — but scatters itself even further; the windborne ash of Vol. I's electrical fire. Still mostly composed of soundtrack snippets (this time from Eddie Alcazar's Perfect), Hurley's work stands now as a more successful whole.

While a clear stickler for detail, Hurley has here taken more of a 'big-picture' approach, unifying the tracks on Vol II with a clear, common theme. It's simple, it's been done before, but it's ripe for exploration: where do we go when we die, when we sleep? Hurley explores the unseen worlds around and above us, atomising his sound in the process.

Long sweeps of beautiful ambience are the air shimmering above Vol. I's boiling tarmac; burning just as hot, but with a dance instead of a stink. This release really shows Hurley's versatility, and stands as a worthy companion to its predecessor.

Anthology Resource Vol. II is available for purchase and streaming here.

Words by Andrew O’Keefe

LINGUA IGNOTA — CALIGULA

Any attempt to categorise the work of LINGUA IGNOTA is an exercise in futility. An alias for Californian musician Kristin Hayter, it covers an overwhelmingly broad spectrum of musical styles. It incorporates baroque, noise, metal, liturgical Medieval; in short, an astonishing, almost comical level of variety. Hayter herself has tremendous versatility as a performer; her voice switching between whisper and roar at a moment's notice. But every deployment of style, every pastiche, is controlled and considered. CALIGULA is more tapestry than patchwork.

This album is more easily assessed with some context. Early in her career, Hayter migrated from California to Rhode Island, ingratiating herself with members of the island's active noise scene. It was in this scene that she suffered domestic abuse from a 'very powerful noise musician'.

Noise and power electronics are oversaturated with the contemporary equivalent of shock-rock; men who use the language of abuse to provide audiences with a visceral thrill. Many bands do little more than describe a violent, often sexually motivated attack, and punctuate it with stabs of harsh noise. CALIGULA exposes this mode of expression as dull and irresponsible — and the scene which bore it as toxic.

Hayter's lyrics are vengeful, apocalyptic, and delivered with unbearable emotion. She is possessed by her own trauma, her own rage. Noise leans very often on disgust, but there is a sort of horrific triumph to CALIGULA; like the vanguard of angels with their seven trumpets. It’s a refreshing, rare approach. LINGUA IGNOTA is shaking the muck loose from her scene. She’s invigorating it, revolutionising it, and melting everyone's ears in the process.

CALIGULA is available to purchase and stream here.

Words by Andrew O’Keefe

ana roxanne — ~~~

Bandcamp, niftily, allows artists to choose which genre their work belongs to when uploading. The more conventional the music, the easier this categorisation is to make. But at the shoreline, the fringes of its own body, water becomes frothier; more opaque. Categorisation is considerably more difficult. Genres and styles overlap.

Dip into releases tagged as 'devotional', and an overwhelming majority of the material you will find has been labelled so as either a joke, an unexplored grab at spirituality, or just a fundamental misunderstanding of the word's meaning. Grimes infamously named herself after, and uploaded her early work, under the genre of 'grime' — a decision based on nothing more than the pleasure of the word in her ears and her mouth. 'Devotional' seems to undergo this same treatment fairly often.

ana roxanne's ~~~ is, however, everything it claims to be. It's a series of mysterious, droning compositions that wouldn’t be out of place on a tanpura. Its stark, sincere lyrics, whose ability to hold each song in its own capsule, unmoving in time, seem to conjure the divine from the air around them. roxanne's vocal delivery is beautiful, too. Restrained but raw, and enhanced by its swaddling of obfuscating post-production elements.

This work recalls Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda’s powerful late works, but with a pleasing absence, or vaccuum, that Coltrane’s work lacked. The listening experience is not overwhelming, or disorientating. ~~~ is an open door, with space inside it that listeners can walk into, occupy, and fill.

In truth, there is little to say about ~~~ beyond an unreserved recommendation. This is just a perfectly balanced release, brimming with suggestion and delicacy. It's the sort of music which holds breaths, slows hearts, and brushes eyes closed. A promising, wonderful debut, which treats every second of your time like a gift.

~~~ is available for streaming and purchase here.

Words by Andrew O’Keefe

Coil — The Gay Man’s Guide to Safer Sex

In 2013, pioneering producer Patrick Cowley's pornographic cues were assembled and released under the name School Daze, and met with warm praise. But his work is not a curio or an outlier. Cowley, like a good deal of other pioneers in disco and house music, was in a symbiotic relationship with the broader LGBT community. These genres are arguably inseparable from the queerness that lifted them into the mainstream.

Legendary group Coil, comprised of ex-Throbbing Gristle member Sleazy and late TG mega-fan Jhon Balance, have similarly explored sexuality and sex throughout their career. The Gay Man's Guide to Safer Sex is no exception, soundtracking an informational VHS of the same name.

The music on this release was recorded early in Coil's career. As such, it may prove more conventional than some fans expect. It's stuffed with progressive house hallmarks: short female vocal samples, swathed in reverb; bright synthetic strings, arranged in jubilant chord sequences; funky, repetitive basslines — in short, a style which was since adopted by and (poorly) imitated in modern mainstream pornography. Thus, the music naturally carries an intense sexual charge. But it's truly tender and sentimental.

'Exploding Frogs' has the groovy, almost gratingly repetitious approach to jazz as Badalamenti's work on Twin Peaks — full of brushes, snares, clicking fingers; reversed instruments and speech, and dissonant saxophones — but also shares its esoteric mystery and oddball charm.

'Nasa-Arab II' is an aquatic-sounding track, disorientating and polyrhythmic. It's reimagined (or pre-imagined) by sister track 'Nasa-Arab'. Treated, indistinct vocals, hooting owls and a greatly extended runtime all serve to deepen the track's sense of mystery and soften its edges. Easier to pin down, less jittery, but still generous and propulsive. It's a little like Massive Attack's 'Risingson', with an absolutely relentless bass riff that brings the best of trip-hop to mind.

These two tracks are the album's locus. It goes on to reprise both 'Exploding Frogs' and its title track, the former resurrected as 'Omagus Garfungiloops' with added sprinkles of eccentricity. Weird, car-horn honks keep intruding on the song, leaning in and shouting over it. But it's not an unpleasant experience, and certainly refreshes and adds some surprises to the track.

'The Gay Man's Guide to Safer Sex Theme' closes this release out. Any changes from its iteration at the album's opening are minimal. But it bookends the other work here so well, and is so catchy in its own right, that it's hard to mind.

If you were in doubt, cast your doubts aside. What could be overlooked as a scoff-worthy oddity contains some of Coil's career-best work.

The Gay Man’s Guide to Safer Sex is available for purchase and streaming here.

Words by Andrew O’Keefe

SØS Gunver Ryberg — Entangled

SØS Gunver Ryberg’s Entangled straddles the frontier between techno and noise; a collection of tracks which entertain as effortlessly as they challenge. The album hosts as many moments of extremity as it does fragile beauty. For long-time fans of Ryberg, the power and aggression of this work will come as no surprise. But some will be taken aback by its melodic tendencies.

'The Presence_Eurydike' is possibly the most gentle track Ryberg has ever produced, soaked through with divine, almost orchestral sounds. Most tracks on Entangled are dry, sharp, and brittle; petrified frogs. This one is still leaping around in the morning dew.

That's not to criticise anything else on here. Ryberg keeps everything at the limit, at the breaking point. But while uncomfortable, Entangled never becomes an endurance test. You keep wanting to turn everything up — not down.

The album ends on a high with 'Silver Thread'. It's a throwback to early electroacoustic music, with a soft drone that adds wonderful tension. It isn't that too-easy-to-evoke feeling of dread that so many electronic musicians are in love with. It's something more complex; anticipation, uncertainty. 'Silver Thread' punctuates Entangled with a question mark. And as it fades out, surrounded by its mystery, you will be desperate for more.

Entangled is available for purchase and streaming here.

Words by Andrew O’Keefe