More sound art than commercial audio product, this album which Amniotic describes as “lo-fi sounds from the Seaford Underground” combines liquid guitars and bass with improvisational vocals that are often barely discernible. Sometimes it’s a quick stitch of melody, or spoken word poetry or lo-fidelity recordings of a disconnected, discordant tune. And then from time to time, you get actual melodic lines and lyrics such as those on “The Valley of Wine” and “The Message is Clear” (although to be honest, it wasn’t all that clear to me).
There are no drums, no overt beats, no loops. Instead, the minimal instrumentation uses sound as a texture, weaving vaguely surreal field recordings and stringed instruments into a bizarre experience straddling the line between art and chaos, between reality and nightmare.
These questions occur to me while listening to the massive, 17-track album Let the Dogs Erode: Is this the ghost of melodies past? Is this a packaged product or a drug? And on songs like “Soliel,” is this the sung melancholia of a million aborted fetuses who once swam in amniotic fluids?
The artist name actually makes sense in a strange way. If amniotic fluid or liquor amnii is the nourishing and protecting liquid contained by the amniotic sac of a pregnant woman, then this music is the nourishing, flowing water of your subconscious which feeds nightmares and slow-motion dream sequences.
It’s tender, it’s unsettling, it’s fragile, it’s awash in reverb, and yet sometimes it’s just what the doctor ordered. Who knew field recordings plus guitar music could produce something so dangerous?
Artist’s Self Description:
Started improvising with a whole heart in 2006 on modified guitars and a home-made drum kit (made by my collaborator – Carl Henderson).
Began recording and editing jam sessions.
Began recording solo work in the beginning of 2010.
Collated works into double album in 2011.
Studying at the University of Brighton currently.
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