Taking things back to a stripped down industrial aesthetic, an entire album of almost purely atonal noise art is presented. Each track takes a different approach, some echoing artists of the past with purely acoustic sounding rhythmic jams, others entirely modern affairs driven with tons of edits and effects processing.
Purely acoustic sounding rhythmic jams
With the assumption in mind that this is in fact our old pal Beatwife behind the edits of steel, I was once again very surprised and also quite satisfied with this release that came out November of 2019.
Taking things back to a stripped down industrial aesthetic, an entire album of almost purely atonal noise art is presented. Each track takes a different approach, some echoing artists of the past with purely acoustic sounding rhythmic jams, others entirely modern affairs driven with tons of edits and effects processing. Also impressive is the sheer breadth of the work—covering a lot of ground over its sprawling tracks. An enjoyable listen start to finish both in the clever way old methods are recalled, and in their recombination with modern techniques.
Cons? This album doesn’t sound like it was mastered and it shows a bit with some very overly loud peaks and quiet lows. Some good EQing and compression would have really made this an enduring gem. Still a brilliant listen as-is, however. Check off another box in musical genres conquered then.
Beatwife is available on Somia Music.
