NEUTRAL - s/t

WAREHOUSE FIND. Edition of 500. Neutral is the duo of Dan Johansson (Sewer Election, etc) and Sofie Herner (Enhet For Fri Musik). _¢‚Ǩ_ìIn a sweaty art space open to no one and just a stones throw away from the Utmarken venue where it all in more than one way kind of began, Neutral did their first show in front of maybe 25 people. The free jazz drummer Peeter Uuskyla opened the night with a shimmering set of absurd, life-elevating bliss and Neutral just ripped it all apart. There and then sort of Gothenburg underground ground zero, or more like ground nothing. New beginnings and grey waves of something very exciting. Its been close to 2 years now but its one of those nights that I will remember forever. Since then Ive seen Neutral on several occasions and its always been a pleasure, always refining their craft but at the same time shredding the improvement to tiny pieces with every heartbeat. Its like they are taking one step forward and two steps back with every minute they produce, and in a very rare and weird way getting better and more interesting doing so.\r\nThe untitled second album, following up Gr_ɬ• V_ɬ•g Gamlestaden (Omlott, 2014), does just that. It takes everything that made the debut album so special and puts it in a rusty meat grinder, taking a piss on the deconstructed mess and puts it together again, piece by piece. The formula might be almost identical, but the final outcome is different. Where the debut was immediate and fairly easy to resonate with, the new album is almost impossible to penetrate at first. You can sense that theres something resembling a ragged beauty somewhere, but its hard to reach. Its like Neutral deliberately placed various obstacles along the way, fucking with everyones expectations and rightfully so. Still, after each time spent with those 35 minutes things will slowly unfold themselves and there you are, pleased with one of the most fully realized and beautiful recordings to ever come from the shitfaced Utmarken camp of misunderstood geniuses. Yeah, I actually heard them all. Neutral manages to connect the dots between everything from Chrome and Siltbreezian gold from the 90s to the more experimental sides of Dome, while throwing in some tape work that could only originate from Gothenburg and brutish guitar playing bringing JFK, Skullflower and maybe even rock-era Ramleh to mind at times. Lets not forget the mysterious field recordings scattered along the way, and Sofie Herners dry, talked vocals, leading at least this listener to the realization that theres no end to this fucking winter._¢‚Ǩ¬ù - Matthias Andersson.\r\n