my disco: environment

Environment is My Disco's uncompromising album of avant-industrial and synth despair for their staunch allies at Downwards. It was written and recorded during winter in Berlin, 2018, in a studio previously used by Einstürzende Neubauten, Keiji Haino, and Pan Sonic, and channels those heroes' uncompromising aesthetics into a radical departure from the band's previous releases, leaving behind gnashing guitars, cold metallic percussion, and gloomy pads reverberating in derelict, factory-like space. Gutting out the driving, math-y repetition of their prized early work (2010's Steve Albini-produced Young/You is a favorite of Karl O'Connor/Regis), the Melbourne-based trio now recall the ungodly offspring of Raime and Swans, operating with an increased appreciation of space, rhythm, and tone that will shock even the hardest to please explorers of avant-rock and industrial fault lines. In no uncertain terms, its eight tracks plumb the depths of a foul mood, strafing thru a series of antechamber-like stations like some inelegant beast encumbered with clanking manacles and ankle restraints. Thanks to the visceral, vivid nature of the recording and production, the devil lies in the synaesthetic sonic/visual detail, riddling a mostly wordless narrative that perfectly says it without saying it. Biting down first with the jagged metallic klang and gnawing drones of "An Intimate Conflict", the album continues to fetishize both bleeding-raw and cinematic themes through the torture chamber ambience of "Exercise In Sacrifice", and the red-lining tone poem "Act", leading into belly of the beast bass growls on "Rival Colour", before the dissonant, keening might of "No Permanence" calves off into a closer to end all closers, with the band's Cornell Wilczek feeding Buchla Easel tones into the empty tank strikes and fetid atmosphere of "Forever" with a febrile effect worthy of Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement. By any measure, Environment is one of Downwards' most singular albums, and a must-check for disciples of proper, unheimlich sonics. Mastered and cut to vinyl at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Edition of 500.