(DGR reviews the new EP by Author & Punisher.)

Half the fun of reviewing the handful of Author & Punisher releases that I’ve been able to cover the years has been in finding descriptors for the music. It is a project that lends itself to creative prose, in part because the Author & Punisher project doesn’t use traditional instrumentation; the artist himself constructs the instruments and plays them solely by himself, so the usual go-to’s are immediately flung into traffic to become someone’s new hood ornament. Describing the slow, percussive, atmospheric, drone and doom that Author & Punisher has made its bread and butter has been fun, but two of the words that never would’ve come to mind are “detached” and “dispassionate”.

Author & Punisher albums have differed immensely from each other over the years, with a collective of various influences each worming their way into the recordings of project mainman Tristan Shone drowning within his machinery that we’ve taken to calling music. Up until Author & Punisher’s previous release Melk En Honing, the music felt partially like an exorcism, a form of expression for someone who was burying himself in layers of percussive machinery, occasionally screaming at the top of his lungs and engaging in the occasional minor Godflesh worship. Women & Children, especially, had a lot of fun with being as fierce as the song within it that bore the same name, albeit at a very slow pace. Melk En Honing had some roots in a blues-and-sludge twist on the regular formula, and also included some of the heaviest moments that Author & Punisher has created to date — including the blinding violence of the opening few minutes of “Callous And Hoof”.

A new Author & Punisher release is kind of an event because it often comes coupled with new machinery that Tristan has built, and the newest Author & Punisher release Pressure Mine is no different in that aspect, but it is a very, very different event than previous experiences. Continue reading »