Ben Frost’s music has always sounded like the soundtrack to a global machine-takeover (hence, the aptness of the title to Frost’s 2016 release on Bedroom Community), so it’s no surprise that the Aussie expat recently inhabited a Chicago studio and seemingly attempted to establish AI through punishment and sheer force of will. There’s no word on whether the studio in question was the famed Electrical Audio run by Steve Albini, but Albini was in Frost’s company for the sessions, and together they reportedly took a full two weeks over the summer of 2016 to push equipment to a limit that may or may not have violated local fire ordinances. “Speakers were torn” and “vast systems” were on the “verge of collapse” and “fed into an array of amplifiers inside a cavernous studio,” according to a press release. “Behind the glass Albini committed live performances to tape; slashing at them intermittently with a razorblade.”
Ultimately, those Chicago sessions led to what’s now being dubbed Threshold of Faith, a new EP that is being surprise-released digitally today and on 12-inch Friday. The EP is but a segment of the 2+ hours of music that was recorded during those sessions last year.
Have a listen to the title track below. We’re super glad for Frost’s continued music-making, despite a recently stated ambivalence subsequent to the release of 2014’s A U R O R A.
Threshold of Faith
01. Threshold of Faith
02. Eurydice’s Heel (Hades)
03. Threshold of Faith (Your Own Blood)
04. All That You Love Will Be Eviscerated (Albini Swing Version)
05. The Beat Don’t Die In Bingo Town
06. All That You Love Will Be Eviscerated (Lotic Remix)
07. Mere Anarchy