This Heat

This Heat

★★★★

Yeah this has been too long coming, same goes for their sophomore album that I have also not listened to yet. After giving this a few listens it's really understandable to me why this album and the group have a cult following in the underground, and have served as an inspiration to musicians from various genres. 

There are obvious pulls from the New York avant scene which include the No Wave movement and classical-isms from many contemporary composers. Then there's the East Asian percussive use in songs like "Water" combined with African drums on "Twilight Furniture". The vocals aren't really that important or meaningful to me, but not much of a bother either. 

This whole album is so mechanical and cold that you sometimes forget that humans created it. By the time you get to the extreme minimalism of "Diet of Worms" and "Music Like Escaping Gas", you're hit with the heavy and chaotic totalism of "Rainforest" that rumbles and pressurizes into the release that is "The Fall of Saigon". An absolutely industrial and pollution filled machine that just keeps chugging away. 

When you start this album with "Horizontal Hold" it's hard to expect what else is coming your way, and that is probably one of the best tracks on here too. It's continuously winding and shifting like a python up a low hanging tree. On "24 Track Loop" This Heat utilizes some sounds and textures that wouldn't be revisited for years to come, at least from my knowledge. It still sounds otherworldly. 

Favorite Song: 24 Track Loop