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audiObelisk: Mark Deutrom Premieres “A Shaky Rabbit” from Brief Sensuality and Western Violence

Posted in audiObelisk on September 18th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

This week marks the digital release of Mark Deutrom‘s fifth solo album, Brief Sensuality and Western Violence. Its title is a self-aware warning — one almost imagines the former Melvins bassist got it from a movie rating — that hints at some of what the full-length has on offer, as Deutrom embarks on wandering progressions of spaciously concocted jazzy, minimalist guitar and complements with a soft vocal delivery only to hit striking contrast with bouts of fuller distorted buzz or tonal crush, whether it’s the 20-minute opener (immediate points) “Dick Cheney,” which unfolds in movements of varied spirit, or “Venerate the Relic,” which seems to encapsulate the somewhat bipolar feel in its two evenly split halves. Elsewhere, Deutrom, who’s joined on drums and a variety of other noisemaking apparatuses by Aaron Lack and who recorded Brief Sensuality and Western Violence in Austin, Texas, with Chico Jones at Ohm Recording Facility, is more driven not to separate, but bring the two seemingly at odds ideas together.

“Sky Full of Witches” has fuzz enough to make the Tee Pee Records roster blush, while the two-part “Temple Smasher/Other Gods” recalls some of the weirdo crunch of records like Stoner Witch and Stag — both of which Deutrom played on — before moving into one of the album’s most open and gleefully bizarre ambient stretches, the vocals keeping it somewhat grounded amid subtle oompah and amplified construction. Where the earlier “Winter Haystacks at Twilight” backed straightforward singer-songwriter peacefulness with progressively echoing leads (you can think Damnation-era Opeth for a frame of reference, but I doubt they’re an influence here), and closer “Turn Toward the Sun” provides fittingly hopeful canyon-icana, it’s ultimately “A Shaky Rabbit” that most coalesces the demon jazz and creeping intricacy that Deutrom has on offer. Like several of the other pieces, it’s split in half, but there’s a cohesion in theme and a steadiness of atmosphere that speaks to Deutrom‘s mastery of the form.

Cryptically, he describes the track thusly:

The world is really really scary for a scared rabbit, and then a wizard makes it even more more scary
with a funk swamp.

Fair enough. Brief Sensuality and Western Violence is available to download now ahead of a vinyl release early next year. There are a couple tracks streaming on Deutrom‘s Bandcamp page, but the chance to highlight “A Shaky Rabbit” wasn’t something I was going to pass up.

Check it out on the player below and please enjoy:

Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!

Mark Deutrom‘s Brief Sensuality and Western Violence is available now on CD Baby, Bandcamp and iTunes.

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