Instrumental heaviness

Two very different albums of brooding, sometimes delicate, sometimes monstrous noise are currently soundtracking my world. Lyrics are nowhere to be seen, and would probably feel lost in these relentless sonic landscapes.

The new “proper” Nine Inch Nails album, The Slip, sounds great so far, and is a free CD-quality download. But Reznor’s previous outing, Ghosts I–IV, has been grabbing my attention more. Thirty-six tracks, averaging 2-3 minutes in length, form what Reznor calls a “soundtrack for daydreams”. Like Eno’s More Music For Films crunched through a beatbox and various electric and acoustic guitars, it occasionally rocks out with NIN’s customary grind; generally it’s pensive and deeply intriguing.

“I Refute It Thus” by Urthona, with its three epic tracks and freeform guitar washes, is the other end of the spectrum. It emerges from the home studio of none other than Neil Mortimer (whose eco-minded Kennet Print are responsible for the printing of the glorious covers of our publications). Released by Dreamflesh allies Head Heritage, it’s no surprise that it comes resplendent with megalithic majesty and gritty poetics that conjure the crystalline brightness of uncut nature, via the heavily distorted technologies of free-noise rock. It more than lives up to the blurb that talks of “Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s Arc noise collage mangled with a low generation audience recording of My Bloody Valentine at their most mental”. The final 21-minute jaw-dropper, ‘Sun And Moon So Heavy’ rages with a shimmering beauty that makes you forget all musical comparisons and sink into an embracing ocean of feedback, peppered with delicate trilling notes and omninous arcing groans. This is the best kind of cosmic noise, evoking the heath and the gaping skies of day and night alike.