(02.14.07) The rhythmic noise genre has been part of the landscape long enough now that most of the original players have either moved on to other manners of noise-making or have been flogging their single idea hard enough now that no one cares any more. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the genre has been played out, rather that it hasn’t had the proper injection of fresh enthusiasm to suck us all back into the world of blistering industrial beat design. Prometheus Burning, however, certainly tries to change that. Beyond Repair, their debut on Hive Records, is a resurgent blast of cataclysmic power rhythms.
Grinding throughout the record is a vibrant awareness of early period records from Hands and Ant-Zen, and Nicole Palmer’s lyrical delivery is reminiscent of Sina Hübner’s rivetgirl vitriol in S.I.N.A . (though, the lullaby verse of “For Every Action There is a Reaction” is decidedly non-S.I.N.A., and Prometheus Burning is all the better for it). Though it is dismissive to simply label this record as a late-comer to the rhythmic noise party because that overlooks Prometheus Burning’s attention to detail. Sure, the caustic beats are the old school rhythms that have jackhammered club floors for more than a decade now, but, like all next-gen iterations, Greg VanEck and Palmer draw from a broader sound palette.
“For Every Action There Is A Reaction” fluctuates with the best of the caustic beat machinery, but the tumult is broken up by caterwauling weather satellite noise and the cascading ping-pong of heavy screws being bounced off the microphone. “When The Past Becomes The Present” rises out of underground ambience (subway station echoes, if you will) and finds a rhythm in the knocking of water pipes before bursting into a slow thunder. The movement of thunder increases with “Significantly Altered,” several minutes of heavy beats and coruscating blowback that leap all over you with a clatter of electrified stickwork. “The Needle’s Eye” twists things up for three minutes with a dark ambient rumble lit by arcing power lines, while “Deconstructing Scar Tissue” pulls out all the stops in a whirlwind of razor flechettes, caustic vocals, clatterphonic drum programming and walls of static noise.
Ah, yes, noise. It’s so nice to see some of the kids are still making it. Recommended.
Beyond Repair is out now on Hive.
