Uncle Woe Premiere Title-Track of Well EP Out Dec. 20
Posted in audiObelisk on November 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Canadian atmospheric doom mostly-solo outfit Uncle Woe will offer a new EP, Well, on Dec. 20. The four-track outing — which is arguably album-length at 32 minutes — is an offshoot of what had originally been an LP to be released earlier this year titled Oblivion and Further Disaster. As founding multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Rain Fice — working with Melbourne, Australia-based drummer Marc Whitworth — tells it below, EP tracks “Well” and “The Many Comforts of Calamity” both also appear on that record, and there was simply more to say.
Fair enough. The textural instrumental “Sermons for the Electrical Lost” complements the long and ambient ending of “The Many Comforts of Calamity,” and as the four inclusions run shortest to longest, the 16:08 “Oblivion and Further Disaster” feels duly like an arrival point as the closer. The highlight, though, might be “Well” itself, which finds Fice layering some subtly intricate melody in the chorus, soulful as ever, the sound still drawing from the cosmic doom of YOB a bit, but never more its own in its reach or affect. Uncle Woe‘s last two full-lengths, 2022’s Pennyfold Haberdashery & Abattoir Deluxe (review here) and 2020’s Phantomescence (review here), worked toward similar ends, but “Sermons for the Electrical Lost” feels more willing to dwell in its drone even with some kind of percussion or other captured rhythmic noise in amidst the layers of guitar noise, maybe-synth, effects, and so on as the wash builds and recedes across the six minutes.
A sense of departure from “Well” and “The Many Comforts of Calamity,” which are both on the will-still-be-out-but-next-year Oblivion and Further Disaster, to “Sermons for the Electrical Lost” and “Oblivion and Further Disaster” — which are not on the LP — almost can’t be helped, but the grounding of the choruses to “Well” and “The Many Comforts of Calamity,” even as far out and echoing as they are, puts the listener in good position to take on the back half of the tracklisting. “The Many Comforts of Calamity” turns left into an airy solo over churning post-metal chug before looping back to the hook at about three minutes in, a lumber and guttural melodicism reminiscent of Beastwars but present in its craft enough for “The Many Comforts of Calamity” to serve as the transition between “Well” and the two songs built off it that became the impetus for this release.
The long fade at the end of “The Many Comforts of Calamity” is hypnotic en route to the sweeping entrance of “Sermons for the Electrical Lost,” and the intention holds firm as Fice explores the ebbs and flows of frequency layering and mashing different sounds together, kind of like they do with particles at the Large Hadron Collider — only much, much, much slower. Mournful plod marks the outset of “Oblivion and Further Disaster,” a not-there title-track for the next Uncle Woe record — anyone remember that time Blind Melon didn’t put “Soup” on Soup and it was like the best song they ever did? — and the meditative feel and downward trajectory of the first couple minutes give over to more intense battery and a harsher, heavier verse. Over the next 10-plus minutes, Uncle Woe carry “Oblivion and Further Disaster” across a multi-movement course, dropping nearly to silence after the early payoff and beginning the march toward the EP’s suitably consuming end.
And I won’t discount the journey to get there, but while raw in the recording aesthetic, when Fice rears back after the 10-minute mark and the song begins its lurching crescendo in earnest, then finds another level of impact entirely and seems to expand until 11:46 when it drops to standalone guitar and residual drone, like the bubble just popped. Some stately, doomier riffing, a light Danny Elfman influence maybe, atmospheric vocals seeming to be swallowed by the procession as it makes its way out, the last couple minutes mostly silent as if purposefully taking the time.
Whatever the actual percentage breakdown might be — it’s imaginary, so it doesn’t matter — a goodly portion of Uncle Woe‘s impression has always been based around mood, and that remains true for Well, but it’s worth emphasizing the crush that’s so vital here and how it feeds into this material’s breadth, even in ways one might not necessarily expect. Plenty of songs crush. Far fewer sound like they’re crushing the sky.
Please enjoy:
Uncle Woe, “Well” visualizer premiere
Uncle Woe – Well
EP / Lead Single from the album, Oblivion and Further Disaster
Written by Rain Fice. Performed and recorded by Rain Fice and Marc Whitworth, in Bancroft, Ontario, Canada, and Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, respectively.
Release date: December 20, 2023
Label(s): Owlripper Recordings (DL), Packard Black Productions (LP)
“Well” was the easy first choice for a lead single once production of our forthcoming full-length, Oblivion and Further Disaster, started winding down. It exemplifies not only a lot of what Uncle Woe does, with its churning and revolving rhythms, and tendency to straddle the depth of pummeling molasses chug work, and vivid dream state floating (without falling hard into either extreme), but also the vibe of the whole album. It’s a bit more dialled in and dire than some of our previous works; more up front, and less meandering.
Once we’d chosen Well for the lead and the similarly straightforward album track, The Many Comforts of Calamity, as its B-side, something clicked and said that there was a bit more to the journey. It felt like there was just a little left in the story that the album hadn’t told so far.
Almost overnight the 5:00 single and matching B-side spawned another 22:00 of exploration, rounding what could have been a simple single up a bit, into a true, old fashioned EP; an Extended Play Single, as it may be referred to by the hippest of today’s youth.
The 3rd and 4th songs are the new material that fell out just for this little record. Sermons for the Electrical Lost is a six minute bit of post-rock contemplation. A Squall of feedback, some sombre clean guitar parts, and a grand, pulsing crescendo, all drenched in glorious bowed lap steel.
The sprawling, Oblivion and Further Disaster (which is not on the album of the same name) is sixteen plus minutes of pure post metal expression. Slow motion chord progressions, chaos, chugging and screaming, protracted, reverb drenched soft bits, several crescendos, and a long farewell. This is Uncle Woe in true form.
“Well” proved to be a gateway into its own little world within the world of the album. A music side-quest; this time with maybe a little bit of that aforementioned propensity for meandering, foregone on the LP itself.
This single/ep makes for a great counterpoint piece to the actual album. Also, it’s only a few minutes shy of being an album on its own.
Tracklisting:
1. Well (4:55)
2. The Many Comforts of Calamity (5:20)
3. Sermons for the Electrical Lost (6:16)
4. Oblivion and Further Disaster (16:08)
Packard Black Productions on Bandcamp
Owlripper Recordings on Facebook
