Sweatbox Dynasty

Tobacco is at it again with synthy, mind-bending melodies that at times don’t really have any melody at all. The mostly short tracks are crunchy, crackly, and heavily produced often with an industrial feel. There is beauty in the grating sound, though, and some tracks are intelligible to the less adventurous. Not my favorite of his albums, but still worth a spin!

RIYL Crystal Castles, Tycho, Com Truise, Hudson Mohawke
FCC clean (practically all of the lyrics are unintelligible)
Recommended tracks: 1, 4, 5, 10

1. (3:06) Like pulling the cord on your lawn mower in an autotuner. Slow, heavily modulated head-bobber.
2. (1:10) Twinkling and hand claps, skipping, synthy, wobbling.
3. (1:33) Grinding synth to start. Heavy metal-esque fuzzed vocals. Machine hum for last ~20 sec.
4. (3:22) Guitar line with an accessible melody in minor key, slowly descending. Dreamy.
5. (2:23) Changing tempos of echoey drum machines with ominous, breathy vocals. Heavy on the skittering synth.
6. (2:14) Electric guitar fuzzily rocks behind twinkling, reverberating scratching synth. Breathy, indecipherable vocals complement. Extremely cold end.
7. (2:33) Static plus dissonant, possessed vocals and synth, but with an identifiable melody. Midtempo, lighter on the production layers than other tracks.
8. (1:57) A bright, instrumental track with intense swells.
9. (1:10) Clappy, motory mess of mind-mushing industrial sounds!
10. (2:47) Vibrating synths with a plodding drum beat. Beautifully melodic, building into a lovely tune with a cold end.
11. (1:51) Chimes and rockin’ electric guitar make this seem poppy, aside from the ominous vocals.
12. (6:09) A longer track of mayhem for your listeners. Constantly changing smattering of melodies, as if they can’t decide on where the radio dial should be. Ending with static forever.