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If there had ever been any question, that indecision can be put to rest: +DOG+ are the undisputed modern kings of noise. With Fuck Faced Failures, leader Steve Davis delivers an album so quietly frightening that nightmares seem preferable.
FFF is a statement of static, where churning electronics build, rise and morph into soundscapes of unpleasantry. While harsh, the tracks weave controlled sonic tapestries of paranoia, depression and neurosis without resorting to blaring overmodulation or hyper-distortion. Patterns repeat, transform and repeat, creating unsettling equations for unbalanced minds as in the opening “La Grande Boucherie pt. 1,” where squelching signals create a hypnotic wall of sound. A disembodied female voice eerily chants in the second part, eventually building to an industrial swirl of blips, bleeps and groans. “Spencer” is an exercise in frequencies while “Low Productivity” sounds like an alien broadcast over shortwave radio. Both “Down the Drain pt.1” and “Down the Drain pt. 2” effectively explore drone, and “Survivor Type” throws everything into the red. The final “FFF,” creates an atmosphere where constantly looking over your shoulder seems like a reasonable thing to do, even though you’re safe at home and there’s a wall behind you.
This is the type of noise album we need to push the genre beyond mere power electronics and into something more like sound “sculpture,” where the tracks are painstakingly assembled with a modicum of subtlety, fear and grace. Long live the fuck faced failures of +DOG+!!!
