INDIGNANT SENILITY - Plays Wagner

"This recording under Pat Maherr's Indignant Senility moniker first appeared as a very limited cassette on Maherr's own label in 2009, but as soon as it landed at the Type offices, they knew it needed to reach a wider audience. Using a handful of dusty Wagner pieces (no doubt scored from one of Portland, Oregon's many thrift stores), he has stretched and distorted the hallowed tones of the original material into something indescribably dark and beautiful. Like David Lynch's peerless Eraserhead soundtrack before it, this is music that sounds as if you are being dragged through rusted pipes and hearing the distant swell of broken gramophones playing in unison. Maherr has created music that is at all times exquisite but deeply disturbing. Like Leyland Kirby or even William Basinski, there is a sense of harmony, nostalgia and restraint in the layers of hiss, grit and noise. It is only very rarely you hear something as pure and enveloping as Plays Wagner, and Type is proud to be able to bring this to the wider world. Having mastered this from cassette tape, all the decomposing grime experienced on the original version (which was dubbed to aging, heavily-used C90 cassettes), has been maintained, but also has been beefed-up for public consumption. The best way to absorb an album like this is to just listen and simply slip away into a deep, nightmarish slumber. Just keep your eye on the radiator, who knows what might happen." - Type .