fakejazz.com

Take your typical feedback-drenched noise band. Then add Leatherface roaming around. Chainsaw-like sounds emanate from the amps. The boys squeal in terror as they are ripped limb from limb, their instruments broken in the process leaving wails of buzzing feedback to accompany their souls during the ascension. That's what The Skaters' Palm Shaper sounds like to me. The sound is a feedback freakout with multiple layers of hollering and wailing vocals. Electronics (or maybe just low rent recording equipment) distort the vocals into spooky muted cries, giving the songs a very disturbing aura. Pulses of hand drums and chimes try to calm down the chaos, but then another soul embodied by feedback bursts out with tortured moans of agony. The music is a btit too formless for my ears, but the duo finds the mark in a few places. Towards the end of "Here a Scarf Lies, There an Excied Call is Heard," alarm-like waves of jet engine-sounding guitar feedback form a repetitive, droning riff. Towards the middle "Mount Amongst Mountains," the distortion creates a shakey, shimmering theremin-like sound which grabs hold of your ears through the rugged backdrop. Moments like these are similar to the more droning, meditative feel of their previous release, Rippling Whispers, that I found so compelling, but they're not the focus of Palm Shaper - it's the tribal, primal, freeflowing assault.

Skaters at Amazon & Insound