YOUNG, NATE - Regression

"Wolf Eyes Nate Youngs Regression series has provided some of the most compelling dread-electronics spewed out by the North American underground in years, with instalments released by Demdike Stares DDS label and Aaron Dilloways Hanson, as well as NNA Tapes and others. It all began back in 2009 with this first volume issued by Joachim Nordwalls Ideal label, an incredible set thats now being released on vinyl here for the first time ever. Young is one of those artists whose output is instantly recognizable, his take on primitive electronics is both innovative and unnerving, and in recent years has really dominated the stylistic direction pursued by Wolf Eyes. Its a kind of creaky, bare-boned deconstruction of classic horror scoring jolted by noise and industrial motifs, sounding somewhere between Demdike Stares early work, John Carpenter, and Mica Levis by-now-classic soundtrack to Under The Skin (2014). You could neither classify Regression as a noise record nor an ambient one, instead the synth dissections and tape treatments more closely reference early electronic music. Trapped" offers little of the claustrophobia suggested by its title, although the continual woody knocking sounds and filthy oscillations do engender a sense of unease, while "Dread" brings to mind the Desmond Briscoe soundtrack to Nigel Kneales The Stone Tape (1972). "Under The Skin" returns to the more esoteric, intangible sound designs that characterized the albums opening, writhing around in a spluttering, tactile fashion thats at once sonically rather beautiful but deeply sinister, modulating through grisly synthesizer gestures while more textural, percussive sounds flood through dub-style tape delays. Young has an uncanny ability to make sonic extremes sound incredibly seductive, and this volume is perhaps the most engrossing exposition of that unique ability. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering. Edition of 500." - Ideal Recordings.