Pushing the boundaries of indie rock to the breaking point, Dan'l Boone are here to rip your ears off and pour something unholy inside.
The "band" -- is Neil Hagerty from Royal Trux, Charles Ballas from Formant, Nate Young from Wolf Eyes, and Alex Moskos from Drainolith. And they have birthed something against nature here. Their self-titled debut album is out now via Drag City and it's...out there.
"Thee Testimonye of An Maiden", for example, uses loops of broken up vocal bits with what sounds like a telegraph-like Morse code-pulse beat. The result is decidedly odd, like the message from a dying alien as his UFO sinks into the ocean.
"Tampa" briefly succumbs to a somewhat contemporary song structure with the dueling vocal lines overlapping and the guitars plucking out sinister-but-random chords behind them. It's still extreme music but it's more the stuff of a dream you can't quite remember than a nightmare...if that makes any sense.
"Paper Tree Alley" starts off like classic Ministry, and by that I mean The Land of Rape and Honey (1988), and then it veers into a new direction with what sounds like cut-ups of a tape being played. It's a cool track and perhaps my favorite one on this record.
The debut by Dan'l Boone is admittedly not an easy listen but it is interesting if you're in the right frame of mind. Radically noise-y and insistent, Dan'l Boone is a rewarding record for those whose minds are a bit open.
Dan'l Boone by Dan'l Boone is out now on Drag City.