Disquiet

Who says noise-makers don’t have a sense of humor? Prolific death-ambient figure Carlos Giffoni has posted the first track of his forthcoming album, The Absence of Essence 2×7 (Ann Arbor Records), as a free download. Titled “The Absence,” it’s five and a half minutes of white-noise onslaught, the thick industrial groan of some massive factory set on autopilot in the dark of night (MP3). Several listens are required for one to begin to hear through the noise — to discern the shapes that are buried in there, the way harsh slashings of sound and routinized thudding are just as much a part of Giffoni’s brutal work as is the thick haze of static in which they’re subsumed. And then, at the very end, the piece skips to a close, dropping down to a quiet buzz, providing not only a bit of relief but maybe even a smile. More on Giffoni, who has recorded with Nels Cline, Merzbow, Alan Licht, Lee Ranaldo and others, at carlosgiffoni.com.

By Marc Weidenbaum