Versus Grain

During dubstep‘s breakout phase in the late 00s, lots of musicians saw opportunities to mix it with industrial distortion: The Bug, Vex’d, Milanese and Various Productions spring to mind. But nobody took it to the levels that this duo from Norfolk in the East of England did. Cloaks didn’t just make the sounds noisy, they constructed their half-step bass weight entirely from noise. Their debut album sounds like Merzbow or Wolf Eyes dancing in DMZ, it’s the sound of oppression, depression, paranoia and relentless plod, of burnt-out synapses and crackling, inhuman signals being pointlessly transmitted across barren, lifeless landscapes. And it’s brilliant. As the track title “Rust On Metal” suggests there is not a single clean line or surface anywhere in Cloaks’ soundscapes: every single sound is degraded or overdriven until it splits and frays round the edges, and the concept of “bass pressure” in this case evokes images of car-crushers in action. Yet for all the bleakness and horror, it’s both elegant and thrilling, with a glimmer of humanity always present amidst the vast industrial landscape.