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] |