Bleep

Wolf Eyes have been busy since their last studio album Undertow dropped in 2017, as is to be expected from the mega prolific Detroit underground band. With a constant stream of highly limited handmade cassettes and CDs coming in, the size of their discography is almost as daunting as the hair raising experimentalism contained within. These sonic puzzle pieces have been reassembled via Disciples with their latest compilation of collaborative private presses Difficult Messages.

Gathered from a series of sculptural 7” box sets decorated with abstract paintings and functional clock faces, these tracks find Nate Young and Johnny Olson trading “long distance musical gifts” with Alexander Moskos, Gretchen Gonzalez, and Raven Chacon. As the molten audio soup of ‘Phone Intro’ opens, it reminds of the lethargic lockdown period where time folded over itself, a period where many of these songs were made in order to find catharsis through intense guitar tones and serrated feedback loops.

Guitar licks on ‘Dank Boone’ rub against the friction of drillbit-powered noise slashes and sludgy vocals, flipping over to the techno flavoured rhythmic exercises of ‘Passive Tempos’ with layered drum machines and pulses snaking around, and industrial shuffles à la the alchemical transformations of Coil. Animalistic groans and squawks permeate multiple tracks: guitar strings on ‘Locked Rivers’ are contorted into beastly sounds, ‘3rd Night Tax Edit’ features the complex, metallic chirps of insects beating helicopter wings over contemplative strums, and the aptly named Animal Sounds play a chirruping melange on ‘Michigan Red Squirrel’ with bass chugging like a croaking frog.

Wolf Eyes capture restless creativity in a period where time stood still with Difficult Messages.