NYOUKIS, DYLAN - The Shield That Pierces the Earth

The Shield That Pierces the Earth is the first solo LP from Dylan Nyoukis, the Scottish raconteur best known for his work in the prolific and somewhat controversial Prick Decay (a.k.a. Decaer Pinga). Im sure that Prick Decays very name has, in the past, led people to believe that their records contain some sonic equivalent of the contentious name: an abrasive mish-mash of horrendous screams, power electronics, guitars being chainsawed apart, or some similarly aggressive, but ultimately boring and pointless brand of noise. Thats a shame because their work owes much more to the weird and subtle minutiae of sound than any sort of bombast"-the same goes for The Shield That Pierces the Earth. Dylan has described Shield as his "folk" record (theres some sort of pun to be made with Dylan and folk no doubt), probably because he is using more plucked guitar (cf. "Clays Festering Lungs") and less tape collage than his past recordings with Prick Decay. But theres very little in terms of structure or melody that might remind the listener of "folk" per se. If anything, the music that this bears the most resemblance to is that of Southeast Asia, though more in the way of the experimentation of the Sun City Girls or Climax Golden Twins than anything that might be termed "authentic." As Temp Webber puts it in the sleeve notes, this is more reminiscent of "folk music for insects" than anything else: mixed in with the guitar plucking and keyboard tones are alien clicks and squeaks and other audio detritus. At times it sounds like the music was recorded in some antiquated factory or by a mutant colony of ants or under some other set of conditions that might produce the organic weirdness contained in this record." - Catsup Plate.