stave: trust

A few short months ago, the very first release by Chicago's Stave appeared - the superbly bleak and weighty electronic album Reform. On this EP we're proud to bring three brand new tracks and a remix of Reform album track Tower 9 by fellow traveller Israel Vines. There's a thread of unease running through the Stave sound - opener Trust makes that very clear with pitch-black ambient moans suppressed by a jittery percussive clatter. A relentless, woozy onslaught with subtle modulations and rising dread. Anon sees in a more brutal rhythm attack and sharper, almost jazzy tonal interruptions underpinned by a barely-there mournful and muffled ghostly synth line. As with all the cuts, the layers are given plently of space to breathe, giving a cinematic feel to the proceedings despite the limited palette. Erox on the B eases the intensity somewhat but is no less desolate in mood. The groaning and fizzing background drones and half-submerged mechanical tribal beats are brightened subtly by light surface crackle as if the audible component parts are being welded in a horror factory kept operational 24/7 by lost souls. The remix of Tower 9, though on the face of it the loudest and most punishing track, offers the nearest thing to light relief in the form of a familiar bad-ass breakbeat and some dubby vocal sampling that finally brings some kind of human warmth to blow away the spectres and bring the dawn a bit closer. Get out your dusty Eraserhead VHS tape, watch on fast forward, and lash on this EP as the perfect alternative industrial soundtrack.