Ancestral Diet – Official Waste LP (Torrid Orb/Saxwand)
RECOMMENDED
Bedroom/cellar-born synth duo (and life partners, I believe?) Ancestral Diet hit the Goth and neo-folk tropes hard, comes out winning. Took a few months to settle into this one, because it was too hot of a summer to think about casting spells, but they reach for an aesthetic that borrows from, yet almost vehemently opposes, various religions and systems of life in favor of a pointedly Anglophilic view of witchery and Earth magick. Even with some kinda corny Black Metal style incantations on the hypnotic “Water Buries,” Clare Hubbard (Caethua, Sports) and Andy Neubauer (Impractical Cockpit) push their vision beyond theatrics – it kind of feels like something has been stumbled upon that cannot be easily forgotten. Musically they totally nail the somber, ‘80s cassette-only-release ambiance, peppering solid musicianship and simple, sturdy arrangements with intensely personal touches, like if Coil had hailed from the outcasts’ high school lunch table somewhere in Maine instead oft of the debauchery of Throbbing Gristle. Yellow vinyl, paste-on sleeve, and from their collage-based, deeply colorful artwork, even the imagery you’d expect to see alongside something like this, save for one sigil drawn on the insert, makes it look closer to a peace-punk/political activist stance, instead of the woodcuts of skeletons and devils you might expect to see. It makes Official Waste seem more like a threat, something built to haunt and linger. Anyone going after the Pre-Cert label releases might like to check this out. (http://www.saxwand.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
