This is the first fully solo album from David Brenner since the Covid-lockdown-released ‘Epicenter MMXX: Quarantine Instrumentals’, and it finds him back at his unadulterated best. This is music so uncompromising that very few will even describe it as such, yet the first time I played this I was filled with a sense of dark joy as there is no-one else working in this field with such confidence and the ability to really capture the darkness and horror of the nuclear holocaust and living in the black and white world which follows with people dressed only in rags as they scour over the rubble trying to eke out their existence. David describes the album like this, “Caustic dark ambient and harsh noise passages are corroded with horror-inspired keys/synth, gnarled post-industrial beats, panicked percussion, and immersive field recordings, most of the tracks replete with torrents of vocals that demoralize the listener with tales of inescapable natural disasters, viruses, incineration, and more”. Remember, this does not contain any understandable lyrics, with the vocals designed to just bring in more dread.
It reminds me of how I felt the very first time I came across Gridfailure, wanting to hide under a rock such is the imagery it invokes, yet also knowing it demands to be played at a volume where there is no escape whatsoever from what it is portraying. If I put this on at a gathering, at the correct volume, I can guarantee that 99.9% of people there will be either running for the exits or demanding it is removed – if there is anyone else left, they will have their jaw open, gently drooling, wondering when the world is going to end. This is one of the most complete albums yet from the New Yorker who continues to smash past boundaries as for him they simply do not exist. Most of you will hate this, but for those who feel that Can and Art Zoyd never went far enough then the logical progression is right here.
Rating: 9/10
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