Thursday, January 25, 2018

Adam Gnade & Demetrius Francisco Antuña - Voicemails From The Great Satan

"America’s most troubled troubadour Adam Gnade is at it again, prepping another slab of post apocalyptic talking-blues via the venerable Three.One.G with the help of musician Demetrius Antuña."
–Tabs Out Cassette Podcast

Stream and read a review of Adam Gnade's latest release, "Voicemails From The Great Satan," via Tabs Out Cassette Podcast, here.

In “Voicemails from the Great Satan,” author Adam Gnade and musician Demetrius Antuña forge a soundscape for all of our fears and frustrations in Trump’s America, as well as a voice for our ghosts. From its outset, the sense of heaviness and hopelessness is staggering. America has been thrown into darkness, and with it has been swept Agnes, a character first met in Gnade’s novella, Locust House. Adam speaks in a tone that feels anguished, desperate, even bereaved, as if reciting a eulogy at the funeral of a country (“America, you broke our heart”). This is surrounded by the piercing wails of bowed guitars- suffering mourners moved to hysterics, and jarring drums/gongs- the rifle shots of a 21 gun salute. Antuña’s use of sound represents electricity, which he noted was “heavily influenced by Dean Hurley’s sound design in Twin Peaks: The Return”. Here, instrumentation and field recordings create a sense of “post-technology-” the incessant, indefinite buzzing of a world left in constant disarray and permanent malfunction. Towards the end of the piece, this ambience shifts towards the organic. Sounds of nature take over, Adam’s voice settles into a drowsy tone of calmness, even surrender, and we are left to feel a possible sense of moving forward– though to what end has not yet been written.
Voicemails From The Great Satan will be made available through Three One G Records on cassette February 16th, 2018 as well as digitally on iTunes. Preorder here.

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