Jason Crumer - Ottoman Black (CD)

Fresh off his solo breakthrough LP on the legendary RRR label, Future With No Chance, Jason Crumer returns with Ottoman Black, an album of midnight drones and true noise. Using powerfully clear electronics as a base for declarative noise bursts, Crumer manipulates the sounds with a resounding animosity. In the vein of past Hospital releases from PEDESTRIAN DEPOSIT and AIR CONDITIONING, Crumer yields his mean streak to an array of silences over the course of the album. The theme here is personal relations; tracks like "Betrayal After Betrayal" have a conversational quality, both the screams and the muffles, the physicality. "Where Were You" is an actionist-influenced piece of torture. There's nothing not painful here, especially the quiet; the peaks are almost a relief. Ottoman Black is a stern and unforgiving universe.