Here we have two solo artist acts who are breaking down musical barriers and creating something new, hostile, exciting, depressing and post-apocalyptic. Dave Brenner as Gridfailure continues to deliver music which is krautrock, noise, industrial and dark ambient taken to illogical extremes, and when he is as on form as he is on these four tracks there really is no-one producing anything quite as devastating. I have been fortunate enough to hear quite a lot of his work over the last few years, and boy is this guy prolific, and there is something about his sounds that I find incredibly compelling. It is music of the nuclear wasteland, the void, and when listing to his material I often see black and white pictures in my mind, as all the colour has been drained from the world which has become a far more bleak and colder place.

I haven’t previously come across the work of Lane Oliver, here operating as Feel Happiness, and he has a related but different musical approach to Brenner. Again it is instrumental, although on “God Bless You All On The Earth” there are some spoken comments from people about global warming and what is going to happen to the world. His approach contains far more in the way of guitars, and the result is something which comes off as being quite close to black metal in some ways, yet without the real menace. The result over the three numbers is that while interesting, it never really captures the intensity of Gridfailure. However, given that Feel Happiness is a relatively new outfit it will be interesting to see how his style develops over time.

This EP is available on Bandcamp for the paltry sum of $3 USD, and for those who enjoy their music to be “out there” then it is well worth investigating.

Rating: 7/10

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Track list:
1. Gridfailure – This Liquefaction
2. Gridfailure – Cryomechanical
3. Gridfailure – Swarming
4. Gridfailure – Wetworkers Local 845
5. Feel Happiness – God Bless You All on the Earth
6. Feel Happiness – I’ve Cut Your Armies Down and Torn Your Heart
7. Feel Happiness – All You Are Is Meat

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Links:
https://www.facebook.com/gridfailure/
https://www.facebook.com/feelhappinessnoise/