Jabber Garland - Primitive Future [Sincope - 2014]Sincope presents Primitive Future, a full-length cassette by Jabber Garland. Sincope, based out of Italy, has produced quite a number of top notch releases over the last few years. I always get a little giddy to see one of their releases in my review pile. Admittedly, Jabber Garland was not a project familiar to me. After some quick investigation, I see that this is one of Andreas Brandal’s many, many, many side projects. One this collaborative venture, he teams up with Norway’s Sindre Bjerga. Primitive Future features 5 tracks of industrial noise crawl with multiple guitar stylings. Much of this album kind of reminds me of a collision between Flesh Coffin and Uvesen, two of Brandal’s other projects. That’s not to give Bjerga short shrift, but I’m more familiar with Brandal’s work for sake of comparison. “Orders from Lucifer,” kicks things off. Voice samples, shifting static, tape manipulation, haunting loops, and low end pulses populate the track. However, it’s the beautiful classical guitar playing contrasted with noisier fare that really stands out. As the album unfolds, each track follows in similar fashion. It’s the varied guitar stylings on each track that really distinguishes them for me. The title track “Primitive Future,” offers free form guitar improvisation, mixed with cassette tape dragging, looping pings, some field recordings (I couldn’t quite make out), bass rumblings, and samples. Side A ends with “A House Where Death Has Occurred,” which starts out sounding like it might go in a sludge metal direction. Heavy guitar buzzing, churning industrial machinery sounds, thunderous percussion (sounding like well placed thuds on a steel drum), weird chirps, and a slew of other junk metal abuse sounds compose the piece. It’s probably my favorite track on the tape. Side B starts with Bjerga and Brandal raiding their junk drawers. “The Woods” begins with the sounds of scraping and scratching, metal on metal, scissors cutting, implements clanging and banging and other sonic oddities. Light feedback and vocal samples present themselves. Heavier feedback displaces these sounds and some thicker bass guitar noodling commences. Eventually some creaking and crunching loops join the fray, sounding like the innards of a ship, crashing into some turbulent waters. The pair finishes things off with “Catalogue of Diseases.” Again the guitar really stands out in this piece. This time they go off in a more psychedelic direction, with some guitar parts that actually kind of remind me of Santana at times. Primitive Future is another homerun for Sincope and company. I’ve come to the point where I realize that it’s impossible for Brandal to make a bad album. Primitive Future further cements that notion. Hal Harmon
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