On the Up and Up (thedowngoing, Untitled EP 2011)
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 2:56PM 
There is a special warming feeling reserved for those who witness a bands transformation from a commendable attempt at wrestling with a great number of stellar ideas, to having finally grappled down a great number of them and in turn dilated them into a homogenous mass of fucked up noise.
Currently this sense of enjoyment is for thedowngoing’s 2011 instalment of muscular mass of Noise/Grind carnage The Untitled EP. No favouritism cards are played for the soft spot held courtesy of being the first band ever to personally contact GTD back in 2010 nor for their aversion to punctuation, the fundamental difference their avoidance being intentional and my own; plain ignorance. So how have things changed from their 2010 shell-shock tour of Insect Warfare oppression let loose against futurist exaltation and abstraction. Well the answers in the band name they went down into the pitfalls of depravity and chaos, only to re-emerge more electrifying and rabid than before.
Must strikingly of all they have really clocked up a heavy on and off alternation and frequent collision between the vigorous grooving simmers in the guitar work creating a sense of engrossing rhythmic threading against a tasteful but hefty downpour of noise rapaciousness, culminating in what I can only describe as a delightful mindfuck in attempting to unravel the inner workings of it all only to be periodically taunted into doing so by the presence of some outbreak of melody in its primitive and uncultured form, only to have a landslide of ear drum wrecking noise knock you back to square one.
Everything just plays against one another creating a disruptive and explosive harshness compounded by speaker strains to reach the evoking highs and lows and thus I recommend its listening on decent speakers or headphones (ie not laptop speakers) not only for the integrity of its enjoyment, but also to stop your speakers from being scarred after being pushed to such extremes so rapidly. We have vocals that stubbornly remain at glass shattering peaks, old school fast and frenzied no room to breathe blast beats and guitar work that just bounces all over the place from doomy slug punches to IxWx garrotte style string vehemence, and everything in between.
Despite the deepening presence of musical chaos, noise and general violations of musical standards (and ear drums) it somehow manages to retain a fundamental sense of purpose and direction. Don’t ask me how, but I can find a go between area that might shed some light on the matter. It retains greatly but not in totality the grim urban dystopia heaviness that leaps forth from Insect Warfare works, but it also drags the frenzied wounded animal in a piranha tank vibe of Gridlink’s work. The conflicting styles are cushioned by a prevailing dark and almost fearful tone and adding heaps of twisted surprises in the mix.
Am I bad man for liking this exceptionally more than Orphan? Quite frankly this release nearly has it all from what I look for in my dose of grind, but that is not to assume perfection. A little bit of production polish wouldn’t do any harm to the release, and some moments could be pinched a bit sharper to emphasise the contrast of elements at play, and most damaging of all it’s just over 10 minutes and really and truly leaves you begging for more. On the whole it is for me undeniably one of the best releases of the year, and beyond highly recommendable.
Reader Comments (1)
more than orphan may be an overstatement of epic proportions, but this one kicks so much ass. i've been struggling for a couple of weeks no to find the words to do it justice.