Melbourne based visual artist Jason Beale has been active under his solo musical alias Aumgn since 2006, but this self-released six track CDR EP ‘Accretion’, limited to a run of 300 copies, represents his first recorded material. Running in at just over 35 minutes in length, the six untitled tracks collected here see Beale using sample collaging, electronic treatments and processed guitar feedback to create unpredictable, deconstructed compositions that sit somewhere between noise, drone and ambience. Coming in at over 13 minutes in length, track 1 offers up what’s easily this collection’s most rhythmically extrovert moment, shifting from kinetic flurries of tabla percussion into an eerie fog of bleeping electronics and buzzing whirs punctuated with sudden crashes of distorted noise as crunching drones rumble away in the background like distant thunder. By comparison, track 2 centres more around overdriven drone elements, with fuzz-heavy guitar feedback cycling hypnotically like a powerline as dubbed-out samples drift like ghosts between the speakers amidst crunching bursts of digital noise and cycling, generator hum-esque tones, before track 4 sees a thick murk of weary, Neil Young-esque guitar feedback rearing its head amidst the more deconstructed noise, and indeed it offers the perfect scene setter for track 6′s closing wander out into eleven minutes of fuzzed-out psyche-rock guitar drones. While it’s sometimes difficult to work out exactly where Beale’s aesthetic sights are set on ‘Accretion’, fans of distorted guitar drone should find much to enjoy here.
Chris Downton
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