The ingredients that compose Dan’l Boone should be noted before we turn to the contents of this eponymous long-player. Charles Ballas (Formant), Neil Hagerty (ex Royal Trux, Howling Hex), Nate Young (Wolf Eyes, Regression) and Alex Moskos (Drainolith). Yes, really. What’s more, the original Dan’l Boone after who they’ve named themselves was a frontiersman and explorer of legendary renown, and this collision of messed-up minds is very much about exploration and adventure.. Needless to say, it’s one heck of a noise.
It begins with ‘Padadena Rings,’ a mess of electronic distortion, warped drones and clattering percussion. In the background, amidst a riot of echo, the vocals rant away sounding for all the world like Alan Vega on the first Suicide album.
A cacophony of bleeps and stutters, judder and jolts punctuate the no-fi analogue electro doodle mess that is ‘Thee Testimonye of an Maiden’ and already one can sense things are only going to get weirder. And sure enough, they do.
‘Paper Tree Alley’ is a fearsome wall of noise, discordant distortion and grating industrial racket that churns and sputters, hums and grinds, with shards of feedback emanating from a wrecked-up cut-up of someone else’s field recording thrown into a cement mixer.. Somewhere in the mix, way low, are vocals. The dark ambient scrapings and dolorous chimes of the final track, the eight-minute ‘Hostage Rock’ are unsettling,disquieting and uncomfortable.
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Really, what to make of it all? It’s deranged, impenetrable, maddeningly inaccessible. And therein lie the reasons why this is such a great album. Sure, many would likely dismiss it is awful, atonal indulgent doodling, but sonically it’s impressive, inventive and intensely interesting. The fact it’s about as wildly unpredictable as can be is very much for the best – even if it is liable to fry your brain.
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