Unexpected collaboration between Aberdeen drone guitar high priests Sunn((O))) and Scott Walker, a UK vocal crooner who rose to fame in the 1960’s. Musically the trademark guitar sustain/drone is present however creative embellishments, even drums, are the theme for this record. Walker’s vocals are NOT high irony as one might expect, instead they mesh well as a counterpoint. The lyrics, the tone, the arrangements, all border on shocking, beautiful, creepy, elegant and disturbing, often all at once. The one sheet crowed something like “its hard to call something a masterpiece before its even been released…” but now that its on the street its pretty safe to call it that.

Notes: Walker is no stranger to the underground. Having had a pop career earlier he released a couple of standard records in the 80’s-90’s that were embraced by music geeks/hipsters/the underground (whatever you want to call them, er, us). His crooning style was dark and strange enough. Pretty much faceless, he slipped into the booze soaked cracks under the bar… until now. Sunn are the product of the sick folks from Aberdeen, associates of Melvins/Cobain/Carlsen et al. Their drone guitar outfit became immensely popular 10-11 years ago, though upon formation they jokingly said they were just an “Earth tribute band”. Indeed, they sounded EXACTLY like Dylan Carlsen’s band Earth in the late 80’s. Since then, Earth resurrected from the parched soil of Joshua Tree, dark and twangy, while Sunn has expanded their sound and collaborations far beyond the sustain drone symphonies they launched themselves with.

All tracks EPIC, play any, all clean.

1) *(8:46) begins shockingly with operatic vocals and light, then a pause and trademark sunn sustain appears, vocs become more plaintive and a searing guitar embellishment comes and goes, the operatic Journey theme appears again, so strange, so so perfect
2)** (12:02) lovely drone and freaky wail, a masterpiec
3) (9:24) upbeat, more song like than drone noise, but ends with a good dose
4) (9:10) trippy drones and vocs, after 2:30 a false ending as this launches into a dramatic cinematic urgency that leads to an actual drumbea
5) (9:25) somewhat sparse, vocal centric, crashes into epic ness