Dark Matter
There's a lot of post-rock about these days many years after it felt 'new'. On the metallic front Neurosis are still around adding new flavours and textures to their original blueprint of long songs, tribal drums, electronics and welters of distorted guitars. Mike Cadoo's Bitcrush project is of this ilk and his sixth record, Collapse, uses many of the signifiers to recognizable albeit admirably minimalist effect.
The five tracks of Collapse segue into and out of one another seamlessly raising and lowering the pulse as they lean on a variety of wintery, overcast tones, harsh distortion and lonely cadences. The Weight (Of a Future Mutation) does substitute the longing for a bit riff based snarl at one point but Bitcrush are infinitely more at home slowly carving out ruminative atmospheres as the duo of To Collapse Into and To Collpase Out Of attest. With their swirling static and unfussy percussion these songs at times sound reminiscent of Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond most obviously when the slide guitar augments those lingering electronics.
Cadoo is a prolific and inventive musician but, despite his best efforts, that doesn't mean that Collapse doesn't suffer from a certain over-familiarity. That this music has become rigidly codified in the eyes of some can't completely rob it of its power but it does dim the effect. What was once mesmerizing is now more like a nice warm pair of slippers.