Utilizing their manifold talents in experimental noise to create sonic assault that rises to levels beyond scorched earth, Liverpool Incendiaries Lonesaw have not been idle during this desolate age of quarantine, and have followed up their debut single “Barbed Wire Church” with the full studio EP Lay in the Salt of the Soil.
The 5 track record is the first release on Liverpool’s own SPINE label. Taking great pains in honing its arrhythmic cacophony over the course of the past two years, the EP was produced by a.P.A.t.T. ringleader Stephen Cole (whatstudio) and Jack Wait (Quarry Studios).
As a result, Lay in the Salt of the Soil embodies both the group’s unyielding methodology in songcraft and their fascination with transgression through aural anarchy and sublime music for displeasure. Listening is the kind of captivating masochism hinted at by Monta Cazzaza when describing the sound of Throbbing Gristle and coining the name of the avant-garde music genre at its most pure and perverse.
The ep begins with the disarming electroacoustic sanatorium that is ‘Yet I Am’, a pensive litany of introspection that is a deep breath before the headlong plunge into madness and sonic explorations beyond that of socio-normative constructs.
This unyielding perseveration of noise continues with the atmospheric industrial grinding of “The Leash”, and the song manages to be both melancholic and horrific between momentary breaths.
The Berlin Dark Techno track ‘What Does It Mean, to Be a Man in a Burning World?’ is a kickdrum-driven militaristic and metallic barrage interspersed with moaning brass instruments that sound like the cries of hellspawn during armageddon.
The ambient “bell-scape” of “The Salt” evokes the Indonesian gamelan in both texture and polyrhythm, and is a salve the aural wounds inflicted before the massacre to follow in “Barbed Wire Church” while highlighting the diverse and dynamic range LONESAW displays in auditory art and sound design.
On discussing the release of, frontman Ben Bones remains unapologetic regarding the group’s creative process:
“We wanted to create a sound world, to build something dynamic and multifaceted. I feel completely unashamed about taking our time to make this record as strong as possible, it’s not necessary to follow the same rules [as other artists]. It’s always been our intention as a live act to be constantly evolving and changing and this record represents that. We will continue forward, unapologetic and uncompromising to make art for ourselves.”
Listen to the EP below:
Lay in the Salt of the Soil is out now.
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