Albums that act like sketchbooks can be brilliant in their own messy ways, with tossed-off riffs or unfinished beats that offer a glimpse into the creative process. The uncategorizable Wreck and Reference has released two weirdly heavy and unnerving records thus far — Black Cassette and (pronounced "No Youth") — by scribbling together doom metal, industrial, drone, noise and whatever else with drums, guitar and a Korg sampler. Riffs and sonic quirks are regularly abandoned as the songs move forward, making for unpredictable cliffhangers that leave listeners wanting more.
But on the forthcoming 7" (pronounced "No Content"), the San Francisco duo takes away the guitar and fleshes out its two most cohesive, song-driven tracks yet. The B-side, "Abhorrence," is like Lightning Bolt reconstructed from samples, but the A-side finds Wreck and Reference at its most melodic and mysterious — which is appropriate, given this weird, mysterious music video for "Absurdities & Echoes."
A broken-bottle ritual and folks sitting in a chair... who knows what the hell is going on here? Let's ask the band!
The video was produced by W&R. Otherwise, there's not much we'd like to add. Thank you!
Well, at least we get a creepy nightmare out of it.
comes out May 21 on Flenser Records.
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