Eleven years ago, guitarist Mark Morgan and tape-torturer Aaron Dilloway were manufacturing celestial spheres in a basement somewhere in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Spin the fruit of that labor, and you’ll get a sense that the pair’s prior ambitions created something so imposing that it developed a mind and gravitational field of its own. It breaks free from the artists and listener. Murmuring feedback loops become perpetually-imploding balls of distortion, which are further compressed into railgun beams as the record progresses. There’s a thin line between panic and the thrill of discovery: Morgan and Dilloway do backflips on it.
Their sophomore effort, a cassingle release titled “Color Changing Knife”, reveals that the midwestern noise duo have learned to tame their electric familiars. Its A-side, currently streamable via Hanson Records, is built on a loop of groaning bass tones that stumble drunkenly in attempt to swat an attacking swarm of locusts. Some of Dilloway’s recent releases have favored more traditional rhythms, especially 2017’s excellent The Gag File LP. However, the digestive textures the duo employ here are vintage Hanson Records fare, fusing Dilloway’s pummeling mid-00s earthscapes as Spine Scavenger with the no-wave meandering that Morgan concocted in his band Sightings at around the same time.
Melding the minds of two noise veterans, “Color Changing Knife” is a master class in progressing without losing sight of the aesthetic that defines you. While working in their usual turgid palettes, Morgan and Dilloway submit work that’s as dynamic (and queasy) as ever.
Stream the first half of the tape below. Order the cassingle, plus digital bonus cuts, here.
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