Hailing from the Nashville underground, the experimental duo known as Skin Tension combine their talents with UK based noise artist Anesthetised Culture Club, a combination first featured on their epic album known as Omni. They came together in that track to create a claustrophobic and tight track that compliments the rest of that radical album. But, seeing as how the band felt it was a stand out moment for them, they decided to come together again to create a full length album, 90 minutes of unadulterated mind melting madness.
If you’re unfamiliar with the likes of Skin Tension, then you’re in for a treat. Josh Byrd and Edward Longo, two who have both been featured in bands off of the Moonlight Cypress Archetypes label, had their previous project before all of that, combining Josh’s spastic and incredibly precise drumming with Ed’s ingenious and almost casual guitar riffs, created noise that was both familiar, yet completely unique all on its own. There’s a touches of inspiration from noise artists of the past, but it’d be unfair to try and compare them to these two as they’ve truly carved out a niche that I can’t get enough of at this point.
To many, this type of music is hard to get into, me included, but with this release Agathaumas, there’s this almost mechanical sound wall that is created thanks to Lucy from Anestetised Culture Club and her perfect use of glitchy synthesizers and noises that morphs well with Josh’s raw and barbaric drumming. The album is sort of split into two conceptual halves. One half, is tight, claustrophobic and heavy drumming, with the glitchy electro sounds melting into the background and pushing the sound to and fro, while the other half, feels more of a pure wall of sound, forcing those electronics to the front as the drums become overran with heavy intense noise that melts the listeners mind and thrusts them into an aggressive meditation. Personally, I’ve found this album to be a great relief for me, something extremely cathartic about hearing just pure passion and intense sound that does or possibly doesn’t have a ‘purpose’, its music for the sake of music.
The fourth track, ^Eccogloss^Deep^ I found to be a mission to listen to from start to finish. A 22 minute marathon of an intense wall of noise that to me, I found simply beautiful, yet exhausting. Its such a treat to hear music pushed to its limits and stretched to a point of a psychedelic moment that I feel the cover reflects perfectly. The track that follows Blahaj was my personally favorite. Ambient noise and what I like to call ‘space-wind’ builds up in this 45 minute closer, with the drumming pulsating in later on with hazy effects drawn over it to suspend you in a different dimension. This track is a great decompressor from the album, a soothing close out that still has those harsh noise reminders of what was presented.
This was truly a masterpiece of a release, and something I felt was really inspiring release. The sparks of creativity are flying and its easy to catch a flame while giving this a listen, as it truly struck me as I was giving this a listen. Be prepared to have your mind melted with this release as it truly is something else.