I know I have a few things by JFK on ancient compilation tapes, but nothing that left so enduring an impression as to inspire my purchase of this record, which was based mainly on anything with ties to Ramleh being worth a listen and the fact that I liked the cover; and my superficiality has once again paid off, it seems.
Weapon Design gives the impression of having been recorded with synths and drum machines of a certain vintage, yet refrains from pushing the usual nostalgia buttons reminding us of how we all used to watch Doctor Who when we were little. If there's any invocation of things passed, it's the cold war and brutalist achitecture. It isn't noise - despite titles such as Secret Orders and Reality Slicer - because even if we don't quite have tune, there are notes and unconventional forms of repetition which do the job of music in the same way as angular slabs of concrete may be deemed art by virtue of grimly emotive force. Perhaps weirdly, the thing it reminds me of more than anything is Metal Urbain - not through any literal resemblance but it has the same icy singularity of purpose, to these ears. I could say it's the sound of, and reel off the usual list of dystopian horrors, but being non-vocal rather than strictly instrumental - because I'm not sure anything which produced this sound is actually an instrument - it really does approach something for which there are no words, which is possibly the point.
Formidable!
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