SHAMPOO BOY - Crack

"The Vienna-based trios second LP following 2013s crushing debut Licht (BLACKEST 016LP), Crack finds Peter Rehberg (Editions Mego), Christina Nemec (comfortzone), and Christian Schachinger crafting a powerful alloy of extreme electroacoustic music, luminous ambience, and the mineral fundaments of rock and black metal. Opener Spalt" immediately signals a departure from the monolithic doom of Licht, conveying instead a sense of adrenalized movement, of acceleration toward an ever-receding horizon. There is no percussion, yet Nemecs chasmic bass and Rehbergs protean electronics give rise to an unstoppable momentum. Schachingers highly lyrical, spiraling guitar improvisations nod to Fripp and Gottsching, but Shampoo Boys vision of the cosmos is more hard-boiled and unforgiving than that of their forefathers. On "Riss," slow, ceremonial down-strokes suggest a return to Licht, with the addition of Rehbergs unintelligible conversation-snippets, machine noise, and nameless natural currents mingling in pernicious hybrid forms that curl and ricochet about the stereo field. Subterranean bass tones, meanwhile, seem to reverberate from an ancient and appalling source. Its typical of Cracks unorthodox Weltanschauung, however, that just when we think the game is up, we are faced not with oblivion but with potential absolution: "Riss"s closing section is a gravely serene tone-painting. Side B is given in its entirety to the three-part "Bruch," the most potent and pugilistic manifestation of Shampoo Boys brute psychedelia to date. Part I is a near-gothic assemblage of tortured computer processing, abyssal drones, and stray industrial noise. This gives way to the calm but agonized concrete of part II, sparse, minimalist, dub-damaged. The broiling digital synthesis of part III complements annihilating slow-motion riffage; a thuggish monochord attack that feels almost Stooge-ian -- grungy, swaggering, sewer-savvy -- but doubles back into abstraction. It becomes impossible to distinguish individual instruments, processes, or contributions; the group mind takes over, the third eye is on fire, and the album climaxes in a black flash of negative ecstasy. Epic in scale, complex in mood, and dazzling in technique, Crack is a momentous achievement from three improvising musicians at the height of their powers. A lived-in and emotionally charged work, harrowing but energizing, it is also a sustained achievement of arrangement and post-production remarkable even in light of its makers pedigree: the harshest and heaviest passages are rendered with a sense of space and richness of detail that is truly otherworldly. Russell Haswells astute mastering amplifies this, resulting in one a supremely exhilarating and rewarding work." - Blackest Ever Black.