steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

review
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info opinion

Radiant Husk

"Beyond an Endless Swale" CS

Bezoar Formations

Genre: free improv, drone, experimental

Michigan, USA

June 3, 2009

Radiant Husk plays wonderful, free improv drone that plants you right in the middle of a haunted carnival. With effect-laden guitarwork as the backbone of this tape, RH's Matthew Erickson sends waves of eerie, reverberating sax and brooding keyboard through the mist, resulting in a gradual, textured soundscape. It's grisly, suspenseful stuff -- the sort of thing that might accompany an old Southern horror film. I'm left awed by Erickson's ability to design compositions that balance the loose and free with an incredulous amount of atmospheric potency -- unlike many experimental/drone releases, Beyond an Endless Swale is consistently engaging and utterly mesmerizing. Relying on layers of overdubs, Erickson makes this into so much more than a improvised/randomized freak-out. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the orgiastic build found on side B, which leads you into a weird, indescribable paradox of odious euphoria, both cruelly evil and deliciously sublime. Put flatly, the cassette underground needs more acts like Radiant Husk.

84%

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: distributed by the label, released 2008]