Scrying Off Screens - Poltergeist

Released: September 23

Being the debut album from UK-based Scrying Off Screens, poltergeist introduces us to a wonderful cacophonous symphony of unidentified sounds. Maybe some guitar, maybe some synths, maybe even some loops. Whatever methods used to create this, it comes in hot with the introductory track “Here Be Dragons (for Saint George),” It opens up with a frankly distorted synth that is ponytailed by a short attack and a lingering atmosphere that warps and twists itself around a bit of percussive textures and crunchy noise that intensifies right about the end. It’s quite an introduction to be sure. 

The fun thing about this album is that virtually track is either a short couple minutes of noise or a drawn out roughly 10 minute escapade with little in between. But in listening, this dynamic doesn’t play out if aren’t paying close attention. The shorter pieces flow nicely into longer ones, with the first two tracks matching up well as the end fades out and “Poltergeist Activity” comes in with a menagerie of bleeps and a steadily growing noise driven synth texture that gives way to warbling notes of a guitar. “I Think This House is Haunted” later brings back some of these noise synth driven textures in a half-comical sounds way. There’s those longer sustained notes that have now been bent into a fast fluctuating mess and the guitar comes in a neat, seemingly side-chained way that mashes down on these synth to give way to the aggressively impatient crunch of the guitar. It just feels wonky and lurid that it is hard to not catch your attention. 

The album closes out with “Momentary Dream of the Mushroom God,” a track that represents the closest thing to an ambient track on the album. The guitar switches positions here and forms the backdrop of the track, giving these soft plucked chords that invoke a sense of drifting. But the synths refuse to allow too much chill in the track, coming in with distorted synth screams that are somehow both loud and aggressive but soft and sweet at the same time. It’s a rather nice end to an album that makes for a complex experience as it combines these quiet nearly ambient elements with other elements that practically scream for your ear.