Worriedaboutsatan – Arrivals
In stark contrast in terms of style and approachability to Gizeh’s other recent release, Redjetson’s Other Arms, comes worriedaboutsatan’s Arrivals. While Other Arms’ indie-rock pyrotechnics are initially thrilling yet quickly pall upon close listening, Arrivals’ ominous ambient techno is difficult to penetrate at first, yet soon rewards repeat listens.
The album is introduced and then broken up by shorter tracks (the excellent ‘One Down’, then ‘.’, ‘..’ and ‘…’), but most tracks range from six to ten minutes, their constituent parts introduced gradually before interlacing or bouncing off each other in hypnotic fashion. While a lot of the sounds will be familiar to anyone who listens to electronic music – crisp 808 beats, synth pads and glitches – all are tweaked lovingly and handled with skill. But what really distinguishes these carefully constructed compositions is the way in which guitars are woven through the electronic webs of sound. Whether pretty arpeggios or fuzzed-out drones (see the closing title track), the guitar lines work beautifully.
The only aspect of the music that is less than successful is the intermittent use of vocal samples. At the end of the dark echoing underpass that is ‘Evil Dogs’, a female vocal intones, “Everything’s going to be fine”, undermining all the delicious malevolent energy that the track has accumulated.
While quite an emotionally exhausting hour, this is a thoroughly engaging album that will no doubt appeal to a wide cross-section of alternative instrumental music fans, embracing everything from glitchy IDM to ambient drone, and at times even crossing over into grime/dubstep territory. Good stuff.