(written by Islander)
Those of you who follow our weekend roundups of new music are aware that I’ve made many discoveries (and then shared them) through perusing the recommendations of Rennie Resin‘s starkweather Substack. His most recent collection of recommendations included thoughts about a new album from a band named Zabus that’s principally the work of Jeremy Moore from Washington, D.C. He followed that offering with these words about a band whose song we’re premiering today:
Zero Swann is another splinter from Jeremy Moore and Benefactor comes two years after the Amon Zonaris release. This project has similarities to Zabus in its approach to sound, using copious amounts of reverb and delay and vocals forward in the mix. While Zabus is decidedly post punk given the psyche treatment, Zero Swann is its more sinister, noisier, atavistic twin. Almost free form and nightmarish in approach where songs are spasms and rattles rather than crafted and honed into shape.
That was my introduction to Zero Swann, framed as only Rennie can do, and one thing led to another… the other thing being today’s video premiere of “Grave Wax Horticulture” from Zero Swann‘s Benefactor album — which is being released today on the Saccharine Underground label.
As you might have already gleaned, Benefactor is the solo work of Moore, who handled guitars, fretless bass, drums, and noise assaults (as well as vocals). The album is rightly described on behalf of the label as “a true crosspollination of styles” that range from “the noise rock/no wave snarl of Ritual Tension and early Sonic Youth, to the shoegaze sounds of My Bloody Valentine, to doom and free jazz chaos over a backdrop of pure lo-fi abrasion.” We’ll also share this from Jeremy Moore:
“Zero Swann was always about capturing unfiltered expression in the moment. With Benefactor, I took this approach with every song. I picked up the guitar and just beat the hell out of it. I did the same with every instrument, actually. Whatever I was feeling at the moment, however chaotic or bizarre, I would commit to tape. Some songs sound and feel like fragmented shards of a machine on the verge of implosion; others like a wall of static… I’m ok with it all, as long as it’s coming from a place of authenticity and true emotional release….
“Lyrically, the album deals with dream state fantasies, the potential for spiritual rape, and the vulnerability we experience when the veil of consciousness is lifted. If we remain open emotionally and psychologically, and tune into lucid states of meditation, we can be imbued with gifts and insights into the unseen world around us. Some visions and messages are darker than others. Guarding against external malevolent forces while mastering the darkness within is the ultimate challenge.”
The lyrics, by the way, are expressed through (gulp!) singing. As you’ll hear in “Grave Wax Horticulture,” they rise up and reverberate with a gothic resonance — strong, clear, haunting, and chilling.
What goes on around the singing, however, creates stark and impure contrasts with the vocals. The music (if you can call it that) scrapes and squalls, woozily moans and seems to scream, as caustic as acid. It also deliriously quivers, eerily wails, and seems to dissolve, making way for singing that’s even more apparitional and a bouquet of sizzling and crashing sounds seemingly intended to sever any remaining strands of sanity… or perhaps to begin rebuilding them.
Meanwhile, up until that closing embarkation into an even more unreal dimension, the bass grumbles and throbs, and the drums bounce and pop, clatter and boom, giving your muscles something to do while everything else is scrambling and searing your brain or raising goosebumps on your flesh.
As for the video, it’s also a collage… one that’s surreal… or maybe nightmarish is a better word.
And finally, here’s what Jeremy Moore has expressed about the track:
“…’Grave Wax Horticulture‘ is ultimately about the loss of innocence. The use of macabre metaphorical themes served two purposes—to reflect the very real and existential horror that victims of sexual violence and exploitation experience. The trauma has a ripple effect that can last generations. The second purpose was to posit the idea of potential growth and recovery after suffering a theoretical death (in the aftermath of abuse).”
Well, this has all been a very big windup, and now comes the pitch (we are in the midst of baseball playoffs, after all). You may want to duck. Hopefully you’ll be hit.
Zero Swann’s Benefactor was produced and engineered by Jeremy Moore with additional engineering by Andy Baldwin (Metropolis Studios), and it features original collaborative cover art and graphic design by Gio Del Morino and Jeremy Moore.
As mentioned, it’s being released today on Saccharine Underground, and it’s available as a download from Bandcamp, and streaming everywhere.
ORDER:
https://zeroswann.bandcamp.com/album/benefactor
https://saccharineunderground.bandcamp.com
STREAM:
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/zeroswann/benefactor