White Christian Male - Jagged Womb

You know, I've never heard of this act before, and I kind of would enjoy to know why this project goes under the name of White Christian Male (if the answer is simply because the person behind this project is a white Christian male, then I will be cursing at myself). Nonetheless, they have released a cassette version of their latest release, Jagged Womb via Chromatin Records just this month. Invoking sounds of the past, residing with darkwave elements but, nonetheless, crafting something definitely worth listening to, this album is well done.

Fear of God begins off the album, giving me a soothing beat and a soothing voice to go along with it. And, its odd, because the track is quite repetitive in itself, but I never found myself complaining about that. I just wanted to keep listening and listening, like I was hypnotized. I mean, later on in the song some noisey drum work, sounding a bit out of place appears, but that was really nothing to get worked up over.

Full of Life keeps up the work with ambient structures lying underneath the haunting dark electronic sounds, samples lying over to give a little vocal work to the song. In the background lies vocal work from the artist, so chant-like that it was pretty easy to miss.

Code Blue continues on the foray, implementing more of the somewhat minimal style mixed with synths that I got used to throughout the tracks. Red Orifice hit in harder, sort of more muddy sounding, but that just seems to be the artist's intent. Because it's not shit muddy quality, but its like a pristine vase with just a layer of dirt smothering the otherwise shiny sheen. A hidden beauty.

Flesh and Bone hit out harder than the last, making another song that was worthy of a listen, and the juxtaposition next to Escape was perfect. The latter song had a lot of noise involved with its structure, hitting not only with darkwave elements, but also the usual preferences of experimental artists. It was interesting.

Continuing on with the chilling and haunting experimental nature, Infection hit out nicely, especially in the first half when clashes echoed from one ear to the next. And, the final track, Slit Wrists, once more went to the deep end, experimenting all over the place, and delivering out eight minutes and forty seconds worth of good material.

And, well, I still find this an odd album to get through. Then again, I find most albums I sit through to be a tad bit odd. I will say that I don't think I've ever heard quite anything like this before. And that's good, as it's refreshing. So, to White Christian Male, keep doing what you're doing. Whatever the hell it may be, you're pretty fantastic at it. Oct 19 2014