Following on from the limited edition Mono and Pelican split
release a few years back, Temporary Residence and Hydra Head again team up for
the second release in this series. Severely limited, these collaborations
present sounds that are not available anywhere else.
On this occasion, the two innovative labels bring together industrial doom
merchants Jesu with classical/ambient composer Eluvium. However, such an
interesting pairing doesn't quite meet the promise it suggests.
Jesu contribute three tracks to this release and they see Justin Broderick's
crew move further away from their doom roots in favour of an ethereal shoegazer
sound. It is hard to believe that this is the work of a man responsible
for bludgeoning our senses earlier in his career, firstly as a member of Napalm
Death and then later through his pioneering Godflesh venture.
The pick of the three tracks is "Blind and Faithless" which brings
together a skewed My Bloody Valentine guitar riff with some inspired electro
breakbeats. At just over three and a half minutes, it gets to its point
with a minimum of fuss, which cannot be said for the languid
"Farewell". A disappointing effort overall from Jesu, that only
had me reaching for their earlier work such as the crushing "Friends Are
Evil".
Thankfully, Matthew Cooper is on hand to save the day, dusting down his Eluvium
costume once more this year. Following on from the release of his
acclaimed "Copia" album earlier this year, Eluvium has teamed up with
Sonna guitarist Jeremy DeVine to create the stunning "Time Travel of the
Sloth". Split into three parts, Eluvium collects sounds,
instrumentation and field recordings purposefully layering them on top of one
another giving a distant, wall of sound. As the track progresses we are
treated to elegant, echoic piano arrangements and isolated foghorn rumblings,
that are intensified by the accumulation of gradual guitar distortion
(presumably courtesy of DeVine).
What should have been a marriage made in heaven has turned out to be a largely
frustrating affair. Aside from Eluvium's twenty minute masterpiece, Jesu
only show flashes of invention and their new direction is not entirely
convincing. Perhaps this release would have been better suited to an
actual recorded collaboration between both artists.
| Reviewer: Michael Henaghan Added: August 12th 2007 |
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