The New Harnessians - Tabla Rasa (2020)

I'm not exactly sure who's behind this one but suspect it's something to do with +DOG+, being on the same label, inhabiting adjacent sonic territory, and the vocal on Blank Slate sounds kind of familiar. Where +DOG+ have brought us harsh noise composed and contrasted with an almost musical quality, the New Harnessians take it a step further. There's noise and distortion aplenty, but it's mostly textural compared to the ear splitting cacophony heard on Die Robot and others; and while there's nothing melodic, not much you'd recognise as a conventional instrument - excepting percussive effects and an occasional guitar, the howling and grinding is not without tone, meaning all these massive slabs of concrete and metal work against one other to create a mood - a powerfully pensive sense of melancholy. Not for the first time, I'm reminded of My Bloody Valentine's first album, particularly the more ruined tracks where something of obvious beauty is still just about audible within its own distorted and destroyed remains; or, if you prefer - the big revelation for me regarding Throbbing Gristle's Second Annual Report when I first heard it at the age of sixteen or whatever, was how all those echoing noises, all the humming and buzzing formed itself into something quite haunting after two or three plays, despite the seemingly random nature of its composition. Tabla Rasa works in the same sort of way without sounding particularly like either Gristle or even My Bloody Valentine; so it's probably fair to say that, +DOG+ excepted, it's not quite like anything I've heard before - which is probably one hell of a claim to make in the year 2020, but there it is.