Death Pyre-Concatenation; eh? Records #133, 2025

 

With Labor Day occurring in a couple of days, and the heat here in Tucson phasing from its almost unbearable phase to more tolerable intensities, Disaster Amnesiac is reminded that Summer is getting to its later times. I am also reminded of this fact by having reached the bottom of a stack of product from the Public Eyesore/eh? Records nexus, a stack which I plowed through during the recent hot months of the year. Chicago/St. Louis Goth/Noise/Experimental groups Death Factory and Ampyre merged their talents and visions in order to release this cassette, Concatenation, as Death Pyre, and it's as out there as any other of the releases issuing from Bryan Day's two long running labels. It's an album that's a bit more on the Tech-ey side of the Noise spectrum as it evinces production features that sound perhaps a bit more studio crafted with the attendant control resulting from that. I have heard Concatenation as an Industrial release of sorts, but am not sure if the people who played its sounds would agree. Reasons for my view include the sounds of hard edged electronics pushed by synthetic percussion on the first track In Absentia, the presence of abstract, murky vocals sounding out from side B's The Fruit of Our Labors, detuned guitar abstractions on International Talking 2, and just the overall "from the caves" vibes from all three of the pieces on this cassette. Ring modules and various other non-standard sound sources provide the melodies on Concatenation, such as they are, and Death Pyre's conjurations of very effective blends of percussive accents within them. This is a release that will delight those looking for wide open, long form abstraction that is pushed to the perceptual breaking point. Not exactly easy to endure but what in life really does have that quality, anyway? Death Pyre or its two foundational groups must surely be pummeling live acts, no?