Craig Johnson & Matt Atkins - Ferric Afterglow

 

Released: May 29

If there is one thing I always appreciate, it is the sound of worn out tape. And Ferric Afterglow leans into this as the overriding motif of the album. It is wonderfully hazy, so much that it’s quite impossible to describe or identify any of the sounds here. Although, you will have those occasional moment in which the faintest memory of a sound is heard before disappearing back into the ether. Divided up into seven parts of roughly equivalent length, Johnson & Atkins take us into a strange and vaguely beautiful journey that feel otherworldly. 

Now, despite being split into seven parts, I highly recommend listening to it as one solid piece. There are short pauses that signify changes in track, but it more or less melds from piece to piece. The same hazy and slightly dreary tone pervades across the runtime with variations on the sounds and their quality. Small clicks, low hum, possibly frogs, possibly dropping a small microphone; all these indistinguishable small bits of sound create a sonic ghost town. For me, it feels as though all of the impartial memories of the tape are there. The incomplete attempt to record over something that was once there can be heard and the duo really seize on those little bits, bringing them closer to the forefront and into the listener’s perception. It makes for a rather haunting effect are all the instances of this slowly pile up.