Blogiarhiiv

6/13/2019

Auger Shell – Holdstill Ocean (2008)




  • Ambient rock 
  • Experimental rock 
  • Avant-rock 
  • Lo-fi 
  • Drone rock 
  • Glitchtronica 
  • DIY 
  • Epic 
  • Post-rock 
  • Electronic 
  • Glitch ambient

Comment: nearby Detroit, US-based Pat Callow aka Auger Shell did have released all his three items under a cult imprint, the Netherlands-based Rack And Ruin Records, having been doing a decent promoting from 2008 to 2011, by the lead of Dean Birkett. Holdstill Ocean was the first and the longest issue of the three parted discography of Auger Shell under Rack And Ruin. Maybe one can find out a prescription coming out from the following sequence/number set in a queue – 037, 051, 073. Additionally to Holdstill Ocean, there are also up Bee Lions, and The Narrows to be listened to. A description by him, a blanket of evocative swirling sounds from one guitar and an arsenal of effects. The music teems with life, at times vacillating between tremble and pulse, shriek and wail, bite and grasp. Soul brother to Christian Fennesz, Kevin Shields and even Lee Ranaldo, his mostly improvisatory compositions are structured in layers and loops, sometimes stitched together with the aid of a computer. Indeed, by listening to this set of long compositions I felt to split the 4-notch issue into a disciple of My Bloody Valentine due to those slightly powerful tremolo guitar treads and lofty guitar transitions within a tangential blend of throbbing hiss and asymmetrical drone-drenched sonic bowl. The second, finishing part was clearly more about laptop and digital technology dominated experiments, it was clearly more about a contemporary laptop and digital processing-based shamanism (Tim Hecker, Pan American, Alva Noto/Carsten Nicolai, Vladislav Delay, Fennesz, Pan Sonic). More magnified loops and glitches pitched up to a higher extent. However, the more I listened to it, the more it seemed to be about magic and something transcendental. At times I feel like listening to an anthology of noise and electronic music by Sub Rosa. The artificial borders set up by me became hazy. Actually a listener can hear exalted (sic!) droning doom metal progressions as if providing some glimpses within a deadly greyish landscape. In a word, by the form it is somehow flawed yet blissful nonetheless (it might be, on the contrary, thanks to it). The beauty is not simply a state, it is the relation/move between/from an inferior/rough to superior/refined one.