Wreck and Reference - Black Cassette 12" (Flenser)

Wreck and Reference are an experimental project that conjures up a thoroughly unique mode of electronic doom tinged with no wave. The Californian duo eschew guitars entirely, but you wouldn’t know it from their artfully constructive, intricate compositions; it’s difficult to believe that those crashing “riffs” aren’t borne of magnetic strings and long-forgotten blues licks. Formed by Drummer (Ignat Frege) and multi-instrumentalist (Felix Danbold), the band’s live performances are a mixture of live drums and samples triggered by an MPC style controller, creating a sound that is as unique as it is rooted in the traditional heavy of guitar-driven doom: Warning meets Killing Joke, Electric Wizard filtered through an alien command center. The band drew the attention of many blogs with the self-released tape-only Black Cassette, which was later issued on CD by Music Ruins Lives. Black Cassette is as refreshing as it is confusing—a post-post-post trip laced with Cormac McCarthy, experimental noise, haunting wails, sci-fi menace and an angry, bizarre undertone that rises up and defies explanation. At times ethereal and spacey, at times bombastic and cathartic, and always intriguing, Wreck and Reference challenge orthodoxy and decimate genre conventions; dom has never sounded so apocalyptic. The sky is black, the soil is still burning, and the machines have won.