Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Capital Punishment on The Golden Sores

From: Capital Punishment (Edinburgh)

The Golden Sores - A Peaceable Kingdom
by skidblue

Hailing from Chicago, the duo of The Golden Sores (aka. Steve Fors and Chris Miller) effortlessly blend ambient and blissful dronescapes alongside a buried harshness of guitar feedback and keyboard haze - a textured approach which seems to encompass early minimalist workouts by the likes of La Monte Young, bit’s of Growing at their most inter-dimensional, to the confrontational fuzz of later Skullflower.

It’s certainly an interesting angle to come at the genre, and one which seems to be one or the other in most drone releases these days. With that said I found it at times meandering into restless e-bow territories, such as the track “We’ll wield Fire”, but there’s still enough on offer here to harmonise the heavy with the soothing. There are some fantastic tones on display here which is achieved by “utilizing a combination of electric and lap steel guitar, salvaged thrift store keyboards, pedals [both broken and boutique], obscure analogue synthesizers, and other obsolete noise-making esoterica” as explained from Mr Solotroff of the leather clad, Bloodyminded / Bloodlust fame. You can certainly hear it on sections of the final track “A Vision” with it's intense build up, a very fitting conclusion.

It’s a worthy release with a lot to offer the drone heads, but I’d like to hear something a little more ambitious from these guys, a bit more balls out – there’s something inherent in their sound which should be pulverising me to a pulp, but I’ve only been lightly tickled and teased. With that said, The Golden Sores are definitely ones to keep an eye on if you’re into the low and slow side of things.