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11/27/2019

Auger Shell – The Narrows (2008)




  • Drone 
  • Drone rock 
  • Avant-garde 
  • Avant-rock 
  • Electro-acoustic 
  • Experimental rock 
  • Minimalism 
  • Ambient drone 
  • Abstract

Comment: Detroit, US-based Pat Callow under the nom de plume Auger Shell did have released all his three items under the Netherlands-based Rack And Ruin Records which has been activated in a span of 2008-2011. At RMH Holdstill Ocean is previously reviewed as a wondrous drift between experimental electronic/glitched-out developments, shoegaze/post-rock, minimalism and ambient music. The Narrows as the title suggests got more narrow or restricted. Mostly it chimes like a hard rocker who finally got sick of his lengthy, honoured career as the player of decent riffs and moderate gears being played day after day decided to develop more naughty and experimental offshoot. Indeed, all those gears and riffs are proudly represented over there yet played heavily through echo chambers and effect/control panels (it looms as if the guitar was pushed to a remote distance). At times (at its more austere and abstract moments) it is just a pure example of drone and ambient when the format is overwhelmed by a pulsating, coil-alike pattern, at its more exuberant moments the 3-track outing can be described with the prefix “rock”. Sometimes the artist opens the door to let the more or less determined sounds go out and mingle with surrounding ambiance. At times the soundscape gets more blurred due to swapping the accents with hisses and noises. For sure, the outing is enough a struggle to get through (for the listener it does mean many subsequent listening times). You can find out this issue under the number 073 in the discography of Rack And Ruin Records.