Dedstrange Records – 16 July 2021
Sonic Maelstrom tempered by tranquil moments on APTBS new EP.
Hologram, the latest release from A Place To Bury Strangers finds the band in fine fettle. It’s febrile concatenation of pounding percussion, feedback drenched guitar and Ackermann’s simultaneously deadpan yet suggestive vocals captures the prevailing contemporary spirit of creeping paranoia and longing. It is the first release on their own newly formed label Dedstrange Records. The group has a reputation for being exceptionally loud and there are certainly instances that fulfill this expectation. However there are also more delicate moments of carefully sculpted shoe gaze tranquility in among the maelstrom of sound.
The first of the five tracks is “End of the Night” which opens with a heavy almost Industrial sounding beat. The song then charges forward with a number of interesting breakdowns that counterpoise the full on attack of the lead guitar’s Chasmal riffs. The mood is one of almost fatalistic apprehension when faced with impending darkness. There is reference to isolation and the hot topic of the moment, infection and illness, ‘Now that the night has come with all the Diseases‘
One band whose presence looms large over this EP is The Jesus and Mary Chain. This is especially the case on second track “I Might Have” which channels the Reid brothers’ distortion heavy, melodic approach to good effect. There is a continuous whir agitatedly needling the ear in the background, just the right level of abrasion mixed with a solid riff; it’s a winning combination. A different approach is explored on “Playing The Part” which has a woozy inebriated quality to it. The effect is as if the sound was refracted through a gently undulating body of water. It also strikes a more positive note, with a defiant invocation to enjoy life and moments in the sun, even when faced with duplicitous friends.
Things are rounded off with “I Need You.” Here the more muted engagement with the squall of post-rock brings to mind the highly evocative sonic textures of Slint. Once again the rhythm section holds things together as the miasmic layers of looped pedals coalesce into an increasingly feedback heavy wall of sound. The pulsating ebbs and floes of the guitar lines teeter on the edge of collapsing under the weight of their shoe gaze groundings before gently succumbing to a near choral buzz of static to bring things to a close.
The band state that Hologram is intended as a ‘sonic Vaccine to the horrors of modern life.’ In fact it may be more inclined towards prognostication than curative, but it is a record that captures the disturbing tumult of the threat of impending collapse with a noisily deployed acuity.
