John Kolodij returns as High Aura’d with Mooncusser, a thirty-minute burn of glacial (both in pacing and sheer density) guitar drones that mixes Leif Inge’s immensely blurred melancholy and Belong’s static sheen. Several solo guitar projects have excelled in the celestial pedal-processed guitar drone category in recent years, namely Brainworlds and Expo ’70 to highlight a just couple, but Kolodij’s Mooncusser will surely stand as a testament to the genre’s finer points. Even Terence Hannum’s (of Locrian fame) artwork adds to the grim vastness of the Deeeeeeeeeep-Space drones evoked by the music within. Adding to the pitch blackness of the sounds is the fine mastering work by Ken Linehan and Type head honcho John Twells, who records equally vast, haunting drones as Xela.
The tape’s A-side gradually builds it’s distant rumblings with a chorus of looped, distorted feedback. As the amplifier seems to kick in and out as Kolodij charts his course, giving the electric vibe of an improvised live recording. The rise of cavernous tones gradually swells into a sheer howl of maxed-out drone.
Sonic Youth is one of those bands where you easily run out of superlatives to describe what they created. This could've easily come off as a cynical cash-grab by a band that had broken up 11 years prior to the release of this record, but that's not what this is. Some of my favourite Sonic Youth instrumentals. sentient meat
The North Carolina singer and multi-instrumentalist translates the "story of lightness" into nine experimental ambient spirituals. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 8, 2021
Written in response to the climate crisis, “Leviathan” is a brooding and beautifully unsettling batch of dark ambient songs. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 16, 2023