27 Jan 2012 — Henning Lahmann
Cleared is the duo of Chicago-based artists
Steven Hess and
Michael Vallera. After last year's debut,
originally put out by Digitalis Ltd., Chicago's excellent
Immune Recordings has just released the project's second full-length
Breaking Day. The album is a staggering blend of stone-cold drones and pitch-black noise elements that are piled up to form massive, breathtaking soundscapes, all tied together by ultra-precise, relentless drumming. This is all very unsettling yet strangely mesmerizing, like watching quickly rising flood waters, deadly yet sublime, and completely irresistible. A highly recommended record, listen to the mind-boggling title track below.
Update: Immune released the self-titled debut from Cleared in January 2011 on both LP and cassette. Digitalis Ltd then released a cassette of different material that was also self-titled. Sorry for the misinformation (but the label admitted that this has confused people before).
Order
Breaking Day directly via
the label or (recommended if you're in Europe) via
Boomkat now.
Cleared - Breaking Day
