Author & Punisher is by far one of my absolute favorite newer acts. Tristan Shone is one of the most through and through inventive and musically original people operating these days and make all the obvious "aggressive electronic metal" comparisons you wish, he still sounds completely original to my over-saturated ear. He's nowhere near the sound of Fear Factory, hard electronic industrial like (my much loathed) Laibach or Combichrist can't even dream of making music like this, and has far passed Godflesh on the weird scale, even during their Songs Of Love And Hate era. With any luck, I'll have the complete and utter pleasure of seeing him live in about a week from now and I'll be sure to tell you all the crazy details, if I can manage to get in.
After you familiarize yourself with some of his music, I suggest you check out this miniature documentary on him and his process of building ALL HIS OWN INSTRUMENTS. Every time I watch this, I pop a bone when he talks about how his bass controller has built-in resistance. I hear he no longer uses that one though. If you're reading this Tristan, CAN I HAVE IT? I'll come down and get it on my bicycle! No matter how well your ear processes sound and beat, this video will give you a much deeper understanding of the literal mechanics behind this totally bizarre and awesome music that shames just about everything with it's fear-inducing aggression and weight.
Another point of excitement for me is that the project is based in San Diego, CA. Which is the town I grew up in, So I can now add another thing to the short list of wonderful things to come from my hometown: Tom Waits, The God Machine, Author & Punisher, and of course, myself.
Moving on. There are two things that I find specifically appealing about Shone's music. First, he has an exquisite and particular ear for texture that mirror's my own. He plays it, I seek this texture out and consume it like my life depends on it. That gritty, dusty, windblown, rotting organic matter texture. Naturally, his album Drone Machines is my favorite example of it, but then again I enjoy feeling like I'm undergoing trephination when I listen to music, so don't mind me. Second, his voice has a weird ageless quality that I've been chasing for years and have rarely encountered. It's difficult to explain, but in his harsher vocals, he could be either quite young, or very old or anywhere between. I've only found that in two other singers, Devin Townsend and Mortiis. Hey, don't hate. Once Mortiis got out of the ambient/LARP scores business, he really got good at what he does and he really does have a great, unique voice.
Women & Children is number I don't actually know in a string of releases from Shone. I've only been listening to his music for a couple (very intense) months so I'm not exactly an expert, but he's got a pretty solid discography of EPs and LPs before this. The first (title) track starts out with this kinda low key weirdy ambient section, it sounds a bit like a child singing when they think nobody can hear them, but half way in, it slams straight into the traditional A&P terrorizing, screaming wall of fucking noise thing.
The whole album has an odd sense for rhythm which is really appealing to me, but it renders it almost totally unacceptable for play any goth/industrial nights which bums me out because I think the world of hard electronic music has gone to the dogs and everyone is busy programming 4/4 beats into their little laptops and laying some lyrics about the wanna fuck and kill you over them or some trite shit like that. I've been on a personal mission to bring A&P to the nights around town by just bringing my own disc with me and requesting it early in the night and usually people will oblige, but I'm always the only once dancing. Simply because I know the music and enjoy dancing to odd or unpredictable beats. But I digress. You don't care about my personal vendettas against shitty dance music. Moving on.Rather like everything else Shone has released (even that mostly uncharacteristic Painted Army EP which sounds a lot like Devin Townsend's Ocean Machine*), Women & Children is solid straight through and has no dubious points. Every song is gut-wrenching, be it softer, hard as nails or a combo of the two. It's hard for me to describe this music because it is so strong and it speaks only for itself.
A couple standout tracks for me are Fearce which is probably the archetypal A&P piece. It's totally relentless, abrasive, screaming and switches between orderly beats and chaotic metal-on-metal noise.
The other extra exciting piece for me is Pain Myself which I unfortunately cannot find an audio sample for. If you're not sold by all the other samples you can find on youtube and the links I have provided here, I can't help you. Pain Myself is essentially a ballad, which is entirely why it's one of my favorites because putting a ballad on an album like this seems odd in the first place, but to have it keep pace with everything else is absolutely brilliant. About being filled up with poison at the end of the day and then letting someone crush it all out of you. It's utterly bizarre and uncomfortable to listen to because of how vulnerable it sounds after everything else on the album and that aggression is still there, but it takes on a more angrily mournful tone. It's built on a backbone of a little piano riff, but the noise, the heaviness is still there and eventually builds back up to end the album on the most abrupt, uneasy note.
I'm not a fan of noise music. You know the kind, a couple guys sitting around twiddling knobs and breaking your eardrums. I have a few friends who are or were at some point entrenched in that scene and that's cool. I appreciate the passion for what they do, it's just not my thing. One of them wisely said recently "You're not into noise if you only like it when it has a beat."
Well, if that's you, you've met your musical match. If you look closely, you can see I'm wearing an A&P t shirt in my profile picture.
http://www.tristanshone.com/
http://authorandpunisher.bandcamp.com/
http://www.seventhrule.com/
*I realize that I have drawn comparisons to Townsend twice in this review. I don't mean to say they musically resemble one another, but there are elements that are similar, such as their voices and a certain ambiance shared by two of their albums. Otherwise, don't mistake A&P for some kind of prog rock pro-tools party, because that's not at all what I mean to imply.
