A ""cult classic"" that I never heard of till now. Even for 1997 this seems ahead of its time. Leading off with a 15-minute mostly-drone track is a bold move, and the album moves into slightly more identifiable jungle/IDM/drum n bass zones with a dark bent. There are some absolute bangers here from the thumping "Dead (Too)" to the glitchy, disorienting heavyosity of "Damaged III". Feels almost like a predecessor to some of Venetian Snares' darker, more aggressive works. "High Life" is another lengthy droning dark ambient track right before the final cut "My Confession" which is a DnB assault over a sinister and syrupy ambient wash. Exhausting at 77 minutes but an absolute beauty nevertheless.
I keep up with Sunburned only intermittently these days, they seem to be taking a more rock-ist approach lately. Like this one. Each track is about 4-5 minutes of pretty ramshackle, jammy, funky, boogie rock...almost spoiled by the throaty, beery vocals shouted over the top of each one of these tunes with nonsensical platitudes. I almost shut it off after a couple tracks but I stuck it out and kinda came around on some level. I was oddly reminded of My War era Black Flag sludge punk. The band sez "these Holy Grail fueled recordings are a mix of iphone and zoom recordings run through garageband, reaper and some plug-ins. We're still working on the much more listener-friendly Black Dirt session..." and point taken, listener friendly this ain't.
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