While I was never very impressed with Wolf Eyes, former member Aaron Dilloway's
solo work has always been intriguing and this LP is possibly his strongest work
yet. Primitivism is, as always, the keyword, but there's incredible finesse
in the slow mutation of these relatively simple sounds (metal, horns, tapes),
and an admirable restraint and subtlety in the execution.
Side A's 'Chain Shot' starts with a slowly building mass of clicks and clanks,
utterly asynchronous, never forming anything like a steady rhythm. At the halfway
mark, electrical hum intrudes, end eventually everything settles down into a
low-key swamp of rattling metal loops that escalates to clattering peaks again
towards the finish.
Side B, 'Execution Dock' announces itself with a clamour of what sounds almost
like sped-up Tibetan reeds which stutter into loop formation along with what
sounds like a fragment of speech. This goes on mutating slowly enough that the
shifts in sound are almost subliminal until horn figures materialize out of
the fog, low-frequency hiss and more low clanking metal loops emerge, and again,
electrical hums and sheets of higher distorted metal and horn scrape build up
to some pretty intense peaks.
The last section contains a slowed down loop of vocal chant accompanied by slow
heartbeat percussion that recalls 23 Skidoo's 'The Culling is Coming' or even
early Current 93. This fades into midrange sonar pings and the whole mess congeals
into a wavering, tonal lock groove. A fantastic LP, one of my two favourite
releases of 2008 so far (Chop Shop's 'Oxide' being the other, in case you were
wondering), and highly recommended. Limited to 300 copies.
