The split EP from New York-based GRIDFAILURE and California-based S.C.R.A.M.
The S.C.R.A.M. portion of this split is a journey from the exterior to the interior, based around the event of a catastrophic nuclear reactor meltdown. It starts with a hurried trek through the safety of the outer perimeter, continues through the concrete shroud around a burning reactor, amid the groans of a heaving pressure vessel and cascading chain reactions. The final track, “The Loneliness Of Cesium 137,” takes us right to the elemental level, to the creation of a new isotope. That track, and the split, ends with a primal roar - the cataclysmic scream of birth, and the flailing restlessness of something unseen, a consciousness convulsing beyond the barrier of the material, a lonely, lashing spirit constrained by atomic structure and bellowing to be free. Tiwari supplies and handles vocals, sequencer, synthesizers, guitars, live drums, and field recordings, heavily shaped with a bizarre and unique “noise box” built by Ash from Ormus Electronics, with additional vocals provided by Joelle Garson.
S.C.R.A.M. creator Pranjal Tiwari offers, “I wanted to do a split with GRIDFAILURE because these projects are like an image on two sides of the mirror; they resemble and reflect each other while being completely different. Whereas S.C.R.A.M. is based around potential energy, the tracks playing a lot with building tension, GRIDFAILURE is rooted in a seething, confrontational chaos, taking that built up pressure and using it to realize your worst fears. It’s like the silent creep of deadly radiation all around you vs. the actual realization that your thyroid gland is flooded with iodine-131 and you’re fucked. Dave and I both thought the tracks complement each other really well, so we opted for a track-by-track split rather than the traditional two-sided approach.”
GRIDFAILURE’s four new songs on the split burst from between the tense atmospheres of the S.C.R.A.M. tracks, offsetting the tension with a barrage of explosive post-industrial, apocalyptic annihilation. Created within a matrix of intense pedalboard arrangements and effects, reverberating, lo-fi percussion is shrouded in a phosphorus fog of bass, guitars, synth, field recordings, and more, with a vortex of multiple vocal tracks piercing through with confrontational dissolution. Lyrically fueled by societal disintegration, environmental collapse, and existential mental crises, once again, GRIDFAILURE evades accessibility and embraces techniques to deliver the utmost discomforting and visceral listening experience possible.
Architect David Brenner writes, “We recorded everything on opposite ends of the country during the 2020 quarantine into early this year. Many of the recent and upcoming GRIDFAILURE releases are created around experimentation with specific genres -- jazz, folk, psychedelia, and so on -- this material was cultivated as an ebb-and-flow with Pranjal’s S.C.R.A.M. tracks; his, the tense but calms; mine, the inescapable opposing disasters. ‘Systemwide Anomaly’ depicts the rapid deceleration of humanity, and engulfing self-failure, while ‘Basophobia’ is the fear of falling down… in this case, again and again. ‘Special Dead’ affirms that nobody will save you (the title inspired by The Wire: ‘There ain't no special dead; there's just dead,’ and ‘Howling Everyday Existence’ speaks to us all. Don’t bother coming here for assurance that it’s all going to be okay.
GRIDFAILURE is the unpredictable and confrontational audiovisual project David Brenner, yielding dense, tension-filled output, with elements of dark ambient and dark hardcore, infused with jazz, world music, folk, harsh noise, electronica, punk, and more. Operating solo or with a cast of collaborators on record and on stage since its 2016 inception, the project has amassed dozens of independent releases, including collaborations with Mac Gollehon, Rack, Megalophobe, Walking Bombs, Christian Molenaar, and others, and splits with Chrome Waves, Never Presence Forever, and others preceding the split with S.C.R.A.M.. While GRIDFAILURE regularly releases material independently and through Nefarious Industries, the project is confirmed to release new records through Anti-Corporate Music as well as Today Is The Day founder Steve Austin’s relaunched SuperNova Records in the months ahead.
S.C.R.A.M. (Safety Control Rod Axe Man) is the solo project of Oakland, California-based musician Pranjal Tiwari. Known for his work with the long-running cult doom metal band Cardinal Wyrm, with this project, Tiwari utilizes this project to create cinematic, experimental, ambient/electronic and heavily instrumental passages. Utilizing tension and negative space to create immersive auras, he has released an EP (Sellafield Mox) and a full-length (America, The Ritual) as S.C.R.A.M. prior to this split with GRIDFAILURE. Additional new material is in the works for the months ahead.
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