Painting the Passports Brown

The guitarist of post-rock underground kings the Dead C, Bruce Russell made this solo foray into tape loops and drones as a series of structured improvisations performed live and edited for this fine CD release on his Corpus Hermeticum label. With guitar and analog tape loops, he creates a volatile collage of feedback and noise, and he succeeds in sculpting the sound into one tumultuous entity. The spirit of his recordings in projects Handful of Dust and the Dead C is prominent in this solo recording, in which the mood is spontaneous to the point of being shambolic. Yet the beauty of this work is in the candidness and wayward post-punk attitude that invents such a challenging and singular music. One of the more striking releases on this outsider label specializing in noise experiments of the highest order.