Excepter - Presidence (Paw Tracks)

Isn’t phasing in radio broadcasts all a bit 2001? They certainly weren’t the first to do it, but when Jonny Greenwood started messing around with a fuzzy old transistor on the Kid A tour, tuning into whatever he could find and warping the hell out of it, it all felt terribly spontaneous and exciting. Nearly ten years on, and Excepter’s latest release (the second disc at least), winds down to a swirling weather forecast. More than a cheap trick, The Anti-Noah achieves that rare soothing effect that Radio 4’s shipping forecast gets so much credit for.

Any Kid A analogy ends there - Presidence far and away outdoes Radiohead in the experimental adventurism stakes. Album announcer ‘KAL’ is a cauldron of chunky, in-the-red synths, with the kind of echoey moaning of worst-case-scenario dream sequences. Occasionally shifting into more melodious chimes, nerves are never too far from palpable terror.

Disorientation might not be the only plan, but Excepter now how to reap it. ‘GOL’ is doused in dizzying loops. One inappropriate but tangible reference point would be when the FBI famously wrought churning, mega-decibal loops of ‘These Boots are Made for Walking’ onto a group of besieged Davidians at Waco, in their ill-judged foray into psychological warfare. Presidence isn’t nearly as unpleasant as that sounds, but one can easily imagine it having a similar maddening effect to ungrateful ears.

Their eighth LP in as many years, the Brooklyn group are signed to Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks, and for once they actually make their label-seniors sound like the Beach Boys, after so many lazy comparisons. Playing it like a post-industrial Can, this double disc is one continuous, free-form jam – with a Tardis-worth of tools at the disposal, and a penchant for sucking one and all into its sonic black hole. It’s a cop-out to say, but describing this is almost a redundant exercise, such is their delirious scope. Suffice to say, it’s transcendental mood music, and those familiar with Excepter’s often-impenetrable world will likely have made their mind up already. It’s no great flaw that a project like theirs can be swirl from the wondrous to the hideous within the same meandering chant – but this, no doubt, is what they do best.

Words: Finn Scott-Delany