Kleistwahr - Channel Some Angst Kleistwahr

The first thing that should strike any attentive listener of Gary Mundy’s work as Kleistwahr is that this new collection of nine songs features drums on the opening two tracks. Combining a manic rhythm with searing white noise, a post-punk guitar chopping angular sounds like it belongs to the debut Banshees’ album, and despairing vocals, ‘Cold Blood Cold Night’ sets the tone for most of the album. While not every song is bound to this same pulverising beat at its core, there’s a lot of untamed noise spiralling in all directions like Gary not only needs to channel some angst but wants to, rather, both rage at the present sorry state of the world and once again compound his place as one of the long-crowned kings of this particular form of expression. In between bouts of glorious din we also get the comparatively more mournful ‘A Drowning’ and evidence that those droning and groaning organs that have long helped define Kleistwahr’s sound are not too far away via fourth cut ‘Fear of a Fucked Up Future’. Throughout all of this, indiscernible abstract jabs writhe and poke from the melee, seething electronics form labyrinthine shapes and all manner of emotions are evoked as an overwhelming sense of gloom hangs over the proceedings. Everything feels like an existential scream into the void (and, no, that’s not another Banshees reference) whilst I daresay Gary contemplates mortality in the face of so much chaos unspooling around us.

Channel Some Angst, festooned as it is with dramatic asides and the very faintest sprinkling of light glimmering from the murk, erupts as possibly the most merciless entry in Gary’s ongoing series of annual Kleistwahr albums for a considerable while. When the irony afforded by the title of the eighth cut, ‘Chemtrails of Hope’, represents one of those few moments of respite from this tumultuous assault, you know this is not going to be one of the easiest listens.

Bathe in this uncompromising wash of feedback, ravaged electronics, serrated guitars, organ grind and resigned vocals as, once again, Fourth Dimension Records supports Gary Mundy’s plan to produce one Kleistwahr album each year all the while he is able to.