Clang Quartet
The Separation of Church & Hate
Silber
Clang Quartet is Scotty Irving, a weirdly inventive and disturbing noisemaker that excels in found sounds and creating unsettling, experimental lo-fi music. In the name of the Lord, no less. And while the incessant preaching of tracks like “Hadephobia” and the title track are musically unimpressive, theologically banal and overlong, there is more than enough good stuff on here to make this a worthwhile and engaging listen.
Irving’s thing is rhythm: he plays loads of instruments on here, most notably “The Crutch” – apparently “a work-in-progress that features a variety of sound sources on a crutch” – but they are all used to create different tonalities and layers of rhythm and skips. Not in a Stomp sort of way, thank God, but with a dark, disturbed Captain Beefheart-goes-to-Christian-art-school sort of approach.
Sometimes too unmotivated to ever matter beyond the first curious listen, Irving also has problems knowing when to stop – far too often the songs drag on for too long. But tracks like “Amazing Disgrace,” “The Winds & the Sea Obey Him,” and the disturbingly loopy “Companions” drive home the point: While this is a potentially over-the-top, sanctimonious affair, The Separation of Church & Hate eventually proves to be well worth revisiting and closer inspections.
Silber Records: http://www.silbermedia.com
