Disquiet

Can something be searing and sedate at the same time? More to the point, can some single thing, a single slice of sound, be mistaken from a distance just as easily as one of those or the other? It’s certainly the case for “Molotov” (MP3), a free track off the new Bass Communion album, Molotov and Haze, the very title of which touches on the inherent duality between fire and cool, cacophony and calm. (It was released recently on Important Records.) The two and a half minutes of “Molotov” could be a bonfire of epic proportions, vast charges of energy unleashed in stop motion and melting everything in their path — or it could be the comforting undertone of some slow natural process, a cozy lull that fills your room with an artful rendering of white noise. The deciding factor may merely be a matter of volume. Turned up high, “Molotov” is a wanton force, akin to the sludge rock of the band Earth. Turned down low, it’s a subtle background pattern, a quiet composition that flavors your room without filling it. Bass Communion is a moniker of Steve Wilson. More info on the full release at importantrecords.com. More on Wilson at swhq.co.uk, where he describes the record as “Multi-layered (and sometimes very noisy) pieces generated from guitar.”

By Marc Weidenbaum