Uninvited Savior

It’s difficult, nigh on impossible, to play this sort of music on a radio show.

Which is a pity because it’s rather good indeed.

The laminal drones that kick off the first track (which you can sample below) are reminiscent of early pre-Virgin Tangerine Dream, and the developing guitar motifs that occasionally appear are like the best bits of Pink Floyd on “Wish You Were Here”. An atmosphere is created, which is rare in new music these days.

The constraints of radio programming (mostly time) and length of the individual portions of this album means I could only play part of any one track. I don’t want to edit any of this music for radio consumption as that would spoil/impact upon the organic whole of the three pieces that make up the album. So I will not be including it a future show.

So you’ll have to take my word for it on the other two tracks.

“Transfixed” is a 25 minute slab of menacing sounds in the general area of Sunn 0))) (with a little more restraint) with heavy long notes in the bass area being mixed with eerie angelic choirs in the upper register. I was reminded of Peter Hammills “Gog and Magog (In Bromine Chambers)”, from “In Camera”, in parts. Musique concrète at it’s best. After the opening drone section the listener is transported to some sort of alien shore where waves of something other than water appear to crash on a crystalline beach as mammoth blocks of sound intervene and strange sky creatures circle overhead.

“Hallelujah (27 Years)” is a massive 35 minute torrent of what feels like religious music fed through a blender, an esoteric mash-up of styles and influences which has some sort of resemblance to early Cabaret Voltaire, and the found sounds echo the first few Godspeed! You Black Emperor releases. Always on the edge of collapse/distortion and free of constraints.

If you like long form mixes of noise/ambience in the spirit of Supersilent, AMM or Fripp/Eno then in all likelihood you’ll like the sound of this release.

So the album in question is Nefarious Industries’ first release of 2020 – BRENNER & MOLENAAR’s Uninvited Savior, a collaboration between Christian Molenaar, of San Diego’s intense free-jazz/noise collective THOSE DARN GNOMES, and David Brenner, of New York City-area harsh experiment GRIDFAILURE.

Infusing vocals, electric/acoustic/bass/pedal steel guitars, keyboards, synthesizers, organs, xylophone, harmonica, 1970s cult field recordings, resynthesis, tape manipulation, contact mic and power electronics effects, and other instrumentation tactics, this is excellent ambient/experimental music.

On the whole I’d rather listen to this than a lot of stuff that gets sent my way. It gives me space to listen and think.

Nefarious Industries will release Uninvited Savior on all digital platforms on January 31st with a limited physical version to follow. You can find digital preorders at Bandcamp or the labels website.