Gridfailure / S.C.R.A.M. Split (Cassette)
The critically-acclaimed split EP from New York-based GRIDFAILURE and California-based S.C.R.A.M is now available on cassette, produced exclusively by Tumbril's Wedge.
The S.C.R.A.M. portion of this split is a journey from the exterior to the interior, based around the event of a catastrophic nuclear reactor meltdown. It starts with a hurried trek through the safety of the outer perimeter, continues through the concrete shroud around a burning reactor, amid the groans of a heaving pressure vessel and cascading chain reactions. The final track, “The Loneliness Of Cesium 137,” takes us right to the elemental level, to the creation of a new isotope. That track, and the split, ends with a primal roar - the cataclysmic scream of birth, and the flailing restlessness of something unseen, a consciousness convulsing beyond the barrier of the material, a lonely, lashing spirit constrained by atomic structure and bellowing to be free. Tiwari supplies and handles vocals, sequencer, synthesizers, guitars, live drums, and field recordings, heavily shaped with a bizarre and unique “noise box” built by Ash from Ormus Electronics, with additional vocals provided by Joelle Garson.
S.C.R.A.M. creator Pranjal Tiwari offers, “I wanted to do a split with GRIDFAILURE because these projects are like an image on two sides of the mirror; they resemble and reflect each other while being completely different. Whereas S.C.R.A.M. is based around potential energy, the tracks playing a lot with building tension, GRIDFAILURE is rooted in a seething, confrontational chaos, taking that built up pressure and using it to realize your worst fears. It’s like the silent creep of deadly radiation all around you vs. the actual realization that your thyroid gland is flooded with iodine-131 and you’re fucked. Dave and I both thought the tracks complement each other really well, so we opted for a track-by-track split rather than the traditional two-sided approach.”
GRIDFAILURE’s four new songs on the split burst from between the tense atmospheres of the S.C.R.A.M. tracks, offsetting the tension with a barrage of explosive post-industrial, apocalyptic annihilation. Created within a matrix of intense pedalboard arrangements and effects, reverberating, lo-fi percussion is shrouded in a phosphorus fog of bass, guitars, synth, field recordings, and more, with a vortex of multiple vocal tracks piercing through with confrontational dissolution. Lyrically fueled by societal disintegration, environmental collapse, and existential mental crises, once again, GRIDFAILURE evades accessibility and embraces techniques to deliver the utmost discomforting and visceral listening experience possible.
Architect David Brenner writes, “We recorded everything on opposite ends of the country during the 2020 quarantine into early this year. Many of the recent and upcoming GRIDFAILURE releases are created around experimentation with specific genres -- jazz, folk, psychedelia, and so on -- this material was cultivated as an ebb-and-flow with Pranjal’s S.C.R.A.M. tracks; his, the tense but calms; mine, the inescapable opposing disasters. ‘Systemwide Anomaly’ depicts the rapid deceleration of humanity, and engulfing self-failure, while ‘Basophobia’ is the fear of falling down… in this case, again and again. ‘Special Dead’ affirms that nobody will save you (the title inspired by The Wire: ‘There ain't no special dead; there's just dead,’ and ‘Howling Everyday Existence’ speaks to us all. Don’t bother coming here for assurance that it’s all going to be okay.