Aarktica
Pure Tone Audiometry
Silber
Jon DeRosa returns with a new album under the Aarktica guise, following a short stint focusing on his alt-country Pale Horse & Rider outfit. Pure Tone Audiometry is an impressively panoramic, yet cohesive effort from one of slo-core’s most dominating voices. Opening with the looping sadcore of “Out to Sea,” a track of dizzy, ghostly wailing, DeRosa moves from the disturbed folk song “The Mimicry All Women Use” to the gurgling wall of organic noise that is “Snowstorm Ruins Birthday”; from “Ocean,” a heartbreaking duet with Lorraine Lelis to the sweeping glory of the extended instrumental “Williamsburg Counterpoint.” DeRosa’s approach is more conventionally melodic and accessible than most of his Silber / Chairkickers slo-core fellows, but he is as uncompromising and individual as any of his peers. Pure Tone Audiometry is an album of huge, swirling beauty, the finest Aarktica release yet.
Silber Records: http://www.silbermedia.com/