Bleep

Visionist’s A Call To Arms pushes on from the tough, abrasive post-industrialism of its predecessor Value in striking ways. This LP is gritty in both the emotional and aesthetic sense, the soul-baring qualities of these tracks often amplified by juddering low-ends and distorted atmospheres.

Whereas some of Visionist’s previous output has seen him focussing on techno-adjacent instrumental arrangements, several of the tracks here find project mastermind Louis Carnell putting his singing voice front-and-centre for the first time. The results are frequently stunning, with a supporting cast that includes Ben Vince, Childhood’s Ben Romans Hopcraft, black midi’s Morgan Simpson and Circuit Des Yeux’s Haley Fohr helping Carnell realise these bold and bracing avant-ballads.

As caustic as A Call To Arms can be at times, there is also poetry and light to be found on this record. While some of the cuts may be constructed from sheet-metal tones, entries like ‘The Fold’ are fragile and gorgeous, tenderly rendered from spools of piano and quavering vocals. Other tracks offer textures which verge on the ecstatic qualities of the fourth world, and the record’s harsher industrial experiments also find a foil in some beautifully wistful piano loops late in the day.

By turns abrasive and beautiful, A Call To Arms is an arresting set of avant-garde ballads from Visionist.