Review: Shampoo Boy

Blackest Ever Black, the aptly named London label that has been grabbing attention with crushingly dark electronic releases for the past few years, seems like an ideal home for Peter Rehberg (PITA, Editions Mego head), Christina Nemec, and Christian Schachinger’s new project Shampoo Boy.

One for fans of drone of all kinds and dark ambient, Shampoo Boy’s improvised debut Licht can be seen to further Rehberg’s work in KTL, where dark atmospherics were dominant but the instruments and sounds were largely kept tightly contained. Licht consistently feels as if it is pushing the limits of the equipment it is being played through, like control could be lost at any second and the work descend into unrestrained screaming noise reminiscent of Merzbow. There’s a sense that the distortion of these ominous, unrelenting drones could escape and envelop the soundscape completely at any moment.

Licht manages to balance the quiet and the extreme to great effect constantly throughout. I often hear discussions of how noise music and ambient music are two extremes of the same scale, and are just different manifestations of the same musical aim. This can be heard throughout this album; there are moments of full-blown PITA style glitch – never rhythmic, always droning – over prolonged, distorted guitar tones followed by ambient, somewhat soothing passages. This contrast is most prominent in the moments where there are some sounds pushing the machinery to its limit (as mentioned above) whilst, simultaneously, others could have been pulled from music written by Steve Roach on a bad acid trip. These sections flow into each other continually and smoothly, somewhat aided by always holding one instrument at a lower level; no matter how much the guitar or electronics are screaming, there is almost always some softer, ambient slow textures happening underneath the top-level intensity. This makes the noise more accessible, having a soft melody underneath the abrasion that can easily be grabbed onto. It reminds me of Prurient’s use of piano and strings underneath crushing noise, adding an element of euphoria to the piece.

It is difficult to get through a description of this album without drawing comparison to Rehberg’s work with Stephen O’Malley as KTL, especially as upon holding the physical release you immediately see that the minimalistic artwork is credited to O’Malley. Licht opens with menacing guitar and bass drones and these continue fairly steadily throughout, varying from nearly Sunn O)))-level deep resonation to barely detectable whispers in the ambient sections.

It strikes me as somewhat odd that some of the elements that seem to have carried over from KTL would, you’d think, have been due to O’Malley’s work. That said, a hefty amount of the soft electronic fuzz borrows heavily from Rehberg’s earlier work and the prolific output of Editions Mego. Despite the inherent euphoria held in some parts of the album (especially the parts most informed by Mego), it is fairly dark and ominous through the duration; the quieter moments where one might begin to take on an optimistic mood are crept upon by foreboding, uneasy sounds, as is implemented particularly well in ‘Still’. Reviewing this on a sunny summer day instead of huddled over in a depressed hump in the dead of winter feels like somewhat of an insult to the work, but it does make for prime late night staying at home music.

There’s a remarkably diverse range of timbres to be found within Licht and I may have undersold this by just focusing on the parts that grabbed me most; whilst the work remains thematically related throughout, this is not achieved via consistently using the same sounds, but rather through the full incorporation of this threatening undertone at all times. That is perhaps the most important way this stunning debut manages to keep an air of unease and discomfort at all times; the constant threat of something worse. This album is yet another triumph for the already incredibly strong set of Blackest Ever Black releases this year, further emphasising their reputation for being able to find some of the most chilling music out there.