Recording: Knurl

Artist: Knurl

Song: Knurl - [two edited fragments from an improvisation]

Recorded at Double Double Land, November 9, 2014.

Knurl - [two edited fragments from an improvisation]

There was sadness at DDL on this night as Border Trouble kept the night's headliners away. The openers stepped up to make it an earlier, though still quite worthy evening. Alan Bloor doesn't perform in his harsh noise alter ego as much these days, so it's always worth seeking out what it a fairly singular experience. Bowing and rasping his custom-made stringed instrument (one component of which is a circular sawblade) and sending the signal through a mess of effects pedals, this is completely enveloping — a whitenoise cocoon, if you will. The closest this came to conventional "musicality" was a distorted howl that hinted at a haunted whalesong, but that doesn't mean this is an unpleasant experience. Especially live and loud, there's so much going on in that howl you're sure to find something beautiful if you listen.