garrincha & the stolen elk-void lp (weird forest)

With a pair of cassette releases in recent months on the venerable tape labels, Stunned Records and 905 Tapes, Garrincha & The Stolen Elk may seem like neophytes on the scene but the truth is Davy Bui and Matt Kretzmann have been making music together in one form or another since 2002. 'I Don't Believe You' kicks off the album with chiming bells and an upbeat church hymn slowed down and matched to a barrage of processed chanting voices. The song morphs into a hypnotic guitar loop layered with ringing synths, guitar washes and ghostly vocals, all building to a cacophonous climax replete with bleating saxes, a buzz metal riff and shredded guitar. 'Tower of Babble' begins with sounds of rainfall and something sounding like slowed-down Gregorian chants as a chiming guitar melody softly repeats, eventually giving way to a buzzing organ drone, a tribal drum beat and belted German vocals before taking a final sinister turn with an insistent snare roll propelling the song towards its grand finale. The album concludes with the side-long, three-part 'First Rites, Last Communion' suite. Heavily comprised of processed Asian church ceremony field recordings accompanied by occasional guitar and keyboard statements, the piece eventually erupts into a maelstrom of noise blasts, wild guitar and ringing bells before settling into a series of long, drawn out tones. Mastered by Graham Lambkin (ex-Shadow Ring), this album sounds like little else in the Weird Forest catalog