DECAYCAST Reviews: THE FATHERS “Sound Advice” Cassette / Digital (T/ECA, 2018)
The Fathers is Nathan Bowers of Tusco Embassy, Coagulator, Sun Poisoning, Sexorcyst and many many others, and Derek Gedalecia of Headboggle / Hillbogglle, Headlights et al taking a fresh and free sonic approach to avant gardism through minimal, stringed psychedelia. On “Sound Advice”, Bowers and Gedalecia seamlessly concoct a sonic stew of a tonal stringed rhythms through oceans of various tunings and strategies. Synthesizers, tapes, and guitars bend, flex, bow, and squeal through a distorted and plucked array of sonic excitement. Big chords, dizzying chords , buzzing chords are accented by splattering drum machines, long synthesized echoes, minimalist plucks, scrapes, taps, pings, rings, and reverberations melt into distant walls of unknown feedback. Eerily scraped axes, densely weighted keys, arpeggio stringed madness is the twisted spine of these dense arrangements.
The Fathers cover a wide range of sonic territory on “Sound Advice” effortlessly oscillating between musique concrete, new music, avant grade classical and even some straight up noise to boot. The Fathers don’t stay in one place for very long, but long enough to give these pieces life beyond just improvisational experimentations, these are complex, complete sonic works into themselves, but they also tell a longer, deeper story to the listener who is willing to make the connections or break the connection. The A side offers one long twenty minute track which begins with subtle synth blips, churning and chirping morse code to a dead radio who’s operator has long abandoned ship, backed by low and slow droning pulses, fluttering distant ringing warning bells of a barge slowly approaching the shore. The A side builds on ominous waves of tension, sounds elasticizing into each other in a sort of Rude Goldberg style of call and response, but it never sounds contrived or “jammy” all of the sonic events seem intentional and as if they have a place in the overall crescendo and decrescendo of a complex and damp mix. The sound never drops off, it only drops into the smallest part of the listeners ear to create a micro symphony of contorting notes and densely weighted rhythms. The blending of the guitars, synthesizers, tapes and other instrumentation gel into a warm, atonal stew of deep, soupy events. Texture and thickness of sounds expand and contract as the push and pull stylings of The Fathers operates like an elastic band of tension, composition, and duality, springing into a new space to once again fold back on itself. The Fathers create new guitar music quite unlike anything else, this tape is a must and it’s exciting to see the possible return of T/ECA, who offer some of the most unique and honest hand silk screened layouts to date, a must own. Grip it now.
D E C A Y C A S T Magazine 