Remember last year, when some Americans were convinced that their government was preparing to perform a military coup on itself? Though explained publicly as a months-long “training exercise,” the increase in secretive-seeming military maneuvers throughout the southwest, from Texas to California, created a fertile ground for the blossoming of conspiracy theories centered around our era’s favorite fear-the-worst scenario: big government swooping in, arsenal ready, to explicitly (and aggressively) strip away freedom.
The name for these tactical drills, “Jade Helm,” reappears as a track title on Violence Is A Dream, the debut of Seattle-based producer Cleanser. Filtered through a scrim of overdrive and distortion, the album seems to be trying to summon a similar mood of violent paranoia — the beats, when they come in, are leaden and heavy, while the ambiance around it is all dread, threat, lack of air. Perhaps meditating on a theme of transformational destruction, Cleanser has degraded the elements here until they resemble the after-image of the chords, drums, and bass lines they started out as, bomber jet trails of music. Dark times indeed.
Today we are premiering album track “Burn In,” which you may listen to below. Violence Is A Dream is available now on cassette and digital from MOTOR Collective.
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