#siltbreeze

Some notes:

Lots more instrumental, or nearly instrumental, music than usual this year on my list, which tracks with the current climate. Music without words, or without discernible words, leaves space for thoughts to become untangled, sure; but a lot of what’s highlighted below felt more transcendent than meditative.

I still listen to rap quite a bit, but very few new songs I heard stuck around past a few days. Call it malaise from living in an era where every other song on the radio has a trap beat. Starlito dropped a clunker, which shouldn't have shocked me but did, and it personally felt significant. Maybe it’s indicative of the old guard’s demise, but hopefully it removes a wall and allows me to engage with newer rap music better. That being said: Veeze's Ganger was head and shoulders above everything else; billy woods' short verse on "As the Crow Flies" made me gasp the first time I heard it (and I also loved ELUCID's verse on "Baby Steps"); and I listened to The Jacka's The Jack Artist most of all.

Of all the books I read this year, two books by Fernanda Melchor, Hurricane Season and Paradais, stood out. Melchor’s prose is incredibly powerful, bleakly funny and vicious in equal measure. The sharp, frank assessments by characters in often ludicrous situations feel like a product of the contemporary but imbued with some ancient wisdom. Shout out to Julia S. for the new and notable South American literature tips.

In the midst of holiday/short day doldrums, amidst endless bleak news reports, it was difficult battling back cynicism to listen to anything, especially back to all of these records and tapes listed below. It ended up being oddly therapeutic, highly enjoyable and maybe necessary, the same as when I force myself out to shows when it's easier to stay home. That feeling chips away at the notion of this list-making exercise as futile, for me certainly, but hopefully also for you. Thank you for reading, and I hope you find something you like, too.

And so:

LP

Lewsberg, Out and About (12XU)

Equipment Pointed Ankh, From Inside the House (Bruit Direct Disques)

The Native Cats, The Way On Is the Way Off (Chapter Music)

Water Damage, 2 Songs (12XU)

VoidCeremony, Threads of Unknowing (20 Buck Spin)

Emily Robb, If I Am Misery Then Give Me Affection (Petty Bunco)

CIA Debutante, Down, Willow (Siltbreeze)

Olimpia Splendid, 2 (Fonal/Kraak)

Nusidm, The Last Temptation of Thrill (Bruit Direct Disques)

Incipientium, Underg​å​ng (Happiest Place)

Witness K, s/t (ever/never)

Leda, Neuter (Discreet Music)

12"/10"/7"/CS

Chrome Cell Torture, Laugh Then Lie 7" (Scarlet)

Joe Colley, Acting As If 10" (Substantia Innominata)

Disintegration, Time Moves For Me 12" (Feel It)

Life Expectancy, Decline CS (Iron Lung)

Gabi Losoncy, Lieutenant single-sided 12" (self-released)

Peg, We Know Who You Are and Everyone Is on the Lookout CS (No Rent)

Romance, Seven Inches of... 7" (self-released)

Sial, Sangkar 7" (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Slow Blink/Stomachache split CS (Hectare)

Howard Stelzer, oh calm down you're fine CS (No Rent)

Troth, Idle Easel 12" (Digital Regress)

Mark Van Fleet, Vordenal CS (Refulgent Sepulchre)

Stress Positions at the Pilot Light, Dec. 9, 2023

Shows

Bill Orcutt & Chris Corsano duo at Jackson Terminal, Knoxville, TN, April 1

Hell & My Wall at DRKMTTR, Nashville, TN, April 7

Cyberplasm, X-Harlow & FKA Ice at the Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN, May 18

Lewsberg at JJ's Bohemia, Chattanooga, TN, September 27

Stress Positions & Utopia at the Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN, December 9

Five songs favorably commented upon by my 3 y/o daughter*

*Something that happens so rarely that I try to take note when it does

Dua Lipa, "Levitating"

Martin Frawley, "Heart In Hand"

Mount Trout, "Hang Around"

Witness K, "In Knots"

People Skills’ closest contemporary analog sound-wise is the Californian duo German Army.Both projects are relatively enigmatic.Not many people know who is behind GA, and it’s almost impossible to find a photo of Jesse Dewlow online.They also employ similar palettes: guitars, an almost monotone vocal, broken synths and samples.The primary difference is that Dewlow seems to draw influence from Gate and The Shadow Ring, whereas GA are acolytes of Throbbing Gristle and early Nocturnal Emissions.Dewlow’s oeuvre is more experimental tinkerer than it is proto-industrial stoic.

Dewlow’s Siltbreeze LP Tricephalic Head arrived in 2014 and was straightforward and song-oriented in nature as far as People Skills material goes.Subsequent releases spanned the spectrum between morose bedroom incantations and noisy, ramshackle Rube Goldberg constructions.Hum of the Non-Engine is a grab bag of these modalities, the best of all Dewlow’s personalities.There are both highly conceptual mood pieces and mutant pop gems on display.“The Library Is on Fire” is an example of the more outré side of People Skills, its intertwined layers of gurgling synths and detuned strings drifting artfully and with an off-kilter stride.Dewlow flips the script and becomes a songsmith on “Flag for Gravity.”Complete with a lumbering drum machine rhythm, the song wouldn’t be out of place on a slowcore band’s demo tape.

The short noise piece “Oval House” leads into the haunting “Thinking Back Through our Mothers,” a gloomy electroacoustic construction.Barely heard conversations bleed into an unsettling moan that feels rather uncanny when paired with the pretty melody that Dewlow layers on top.A Sentridoh-esque ditty closes out the first side of the LP, and on the flip Dewlow continues exploring the many facets of lo-fi bedroom spirit-summoning.The mood appears to lighten, which is relative when discussing People Skills’ music, but the tempo remains leisurely throughout the remainder of the album.Dewlow masterfully balances alien atmospheres with recognizable signifiers and dispatches these strange missives at a pace that makes Hum of the Non-Engine a captivating listen.His Philly noise is delivered slowly, one moody piece at a time.