This combination of hammering pulses, screeching feedback and tight grooves creates a captivating sound that doesn’t work solely because of its intensity, but also because Brandon Invergo shakes things up effectively throughout this release.
Hammering pulses, screeching feedback and tight grooves
This Brandon Invergo LP is a pretty intense dive into deeply pulsating electronica. While the beginning of the LP may lead you to think it’s some kind of extreme electronic noise art à la Pan Sonic, the album is actually more focused on noise than it is on rhythms or mind-numbing intense repetition; that being said, grooves are still there, and they’re really engaging most of the times—when you can make them out, that is.
This combination of hammering pulses, screeching feedback and tight grooves creates a captivating sound that doesn’t work solely because of its intensity, but also because Brandon Invergo shakes things up effectively throughout this release. There’s plenty of shifts that happen, in the first piece mainly, that always keep things fresh, as the grooves often switch and so does the main focus of the piece, going from some tight and danceable sections to rather harsh washes of noise.
The second half of the record is instead far calmer, though that does not mean pleasant or harmonious; while he overall feel of “Paved With Blind Contentions” could be describes as ambient or drone, its strength sure veers away from that sentiment. The noise is very textured, some really rough and dirty tones make up the louder walls of noise that never quite seem to settle down; in the lower registers there’s instead some buzzy drones that are far more corpulent, they’re really really dense and are one of the main reasons why this track remains so tight despite its repetitiveness. It’s only partial repetition though, as even among these major components there’s constant variation, and I don’t mean that simply in pitch, I mean that in the sense that there’s some clear direction as to how the noise gradually shifts into more or less intense segments thanks to the differences in volume, intensity or layering of the noise. There’s also a background echoing melody that is what ultimately makes the piece chilling in certain sections, as not only is it a great contrast thanks to its rather clean sound, but it’s also pretty cool how it’s almost struggling to be heard, as if at points it was getting suffocated by the noise only for you to hear it reemerge later, creating some sort of dim hope you can latch onto in the midst of pure chaos.
The second half of “Paved with Blind Contentions” is not quite as interesting, as even if it’s engaging in the way it decomposes as it goes, the process becomes a bit dull considering the lack of variation or tricks that may have made this last portion a bit more detailed; it’s gradually stripping down the noise to leave the intense buzzing do its thing, but the process is so linear that it feels like a bit of a wait upon repeated listens, given there’s not much more to discover there.
Bringing in noise without any hesitation ::
The first piece, “A House Ignited,” is where the real stuff’s at. First of all, I love how it kicks off, it has a proper introduction in the first two minutes, where you’re introduced to a series of grooves that get altered throughout the course of the track. This not only makes for a good intro, as you can’t go wrong with opening up with some solid rhythms, but it also makes it so the track is telling you straight away that drums are going to be an important part, and turns out they are. The piece grows in volume rapidly, bringing in noise without any hesitation or build up, but there is a moment that clicks distinctly thanks to how the massive bass pulses complement the stiff and dry grooves and noise that dominated the mix so far. The first half plays a lot with these elements, but always does so in engaging ways, there’s various moments where the noise not only gets really good in it of itself, but it also interlocks really smoothly with the rhythms, it’s almost as if instead of being harsh power noise it was trying to create and actual sense of groove.
The second half of “A House Ignited” is quite different instead, as it seems to be focused on sending repeated blows to your brain. It features this constant hammering bass, like you’d find it in some dark industrial techno, and with it some rather tight grooves appear, being faster than the ones in the previous half. I also really enjoy the metallic tones that make up the percussion, they really seal the second half as a different experience from the first, even if the two are obviously still related due to their intensity.
Again, some moments get harsher, some are heavier, it all depends on how Brandon Invergo lays out the layers of noise or amps up and tones down the already existing ones, but the track is always tight and exciting either way.
Though this LP does overall suffer from some slow moments, as certain sections do feel like they lose power after a while, the display of intensity is always appreciated. There’s some really nice use of texture in this album, not solely because it’s oriented around noise, but also because of the various tones that are displayed, there’s always a nice factor or complementarity that really helps these two tracks succeed.
Some harsher mastering could have made “A House Ignited” an absolute monster of a tune, though that may just be my lousy ears, but even then I can’t help but feel pulled in by that track’s great arrangement, it’s as if it showed you its hand at the beginning and then still managed to impress you with how well it plays its cards.
Bringing On the Eschaton is available on Moon Atlas. [Bandcamp]
