Good atmospheric horror-drone ambient experiences to swaddle the brain can be found on The New Twilight (COLD SPRING RECORDS CSR341CD) by 400 Lonely Things.
This English creator Craig Varian intrigued us with their unusual Mother Moon album for this label, a strange utterance from a wistful soul driven half-mad by the poignant memory of something they had never experienced. This condition is a known thing and seems to afflict others in similar musical genres; I think Cold Cave is one of them. For today’s record, our man has focussed on sampling horror movies – perhaps effects, music, dialogue, or all three – something they’ve been doing since 2008, if not earlier. While I can’t think of any specific instances, I always think such sampling is quite a commonplace in many forms of grungey horror-rock and industrial maniacal mayhem-records for the last 40 years, usually done with intent to shock and jolt the listener or simply wallow in flames, gore, pain, satanism, the supernatural, witchcraft, and any other juicy themes that can be excavated from such soundtracks.
However, 400 Lonely Things is doing a lot to transcend all of that. From what I can hear on today’s offering, there’s a good deal of artistry in the way that loops and segments are pasted together in the murky editing board, and evoking a much wider range of emotional responses than the simple “shock treatment” to which I allude. Indeed, press notes go so far as to use the “hauntology” word to hook in more listeners. Craig Varian is apparently a connoisseur of 1980s “video nasties”, perhaps housing a vast library of VHS tapes in his mansion, and is evidently drawing from deep intimate knowledge of his sources. Further manifestations of this forbidden lore can be found in the booklet of photos, presenting many grainy images and rephotographed details all taken out of context, and designed to unsettle.
Given the usual offerings from this dark label, The New Twilight is a welcome instance of moving and poetic concoctions of eerie oddness, casting a limpid spell over the eyelids.