by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Have you ever wanted a soundtrack for the feeling of reality slipping away? Enter a world of sordid noise rock, where jazz meets grindcore, prog blends with no-wave, and absolutely nothing is subtle. It’s all by design on Fred Cracklin’s sophomore album, Anxiety Kinship. Due out April 10th via a dynamic duo of labels, Sad Cactus Records (Gorgeous, Lrrr, Big Fred) and Midnight Werewolf Records (Sorespot, Blue Ray, Elizabeth Colour Wheel), the duo of 23 Ensemble’s Adam Bosse (guitar) and Tundrastomper’s Max Goldstein (drums), have thrown caution to the wind and they’re getting into the sweet spot of experimental freak-out noise punk with an intelligence at its core.
Squeals, squiggles, blurts, scrapes, bleats… it’s all there, one sound warping into the next, but not without careful construction. The music of Fred Cracklin never feels happenstance. Their chaos is orchestrated, with every skittering jazz fill and deranged classical progression pieced together with mutant detail, from the nimble swarm and detached samba of “Toucan” to the blistering fuzz convulsions of “Pinball Blizzard”. Goldstein and Bosse are impeccably skilled musicians and they are operating on a high level throughout Anxiety Kinship (if we’re finding unity in anxiety, there should be an overwhelming feeling to “togetherness” these days). Whether playing concise and mathy (“Boar Drill”), working thought a child-assisted death metal churn (“Kid Cracklin”), or pushing well beyond mind-blown King Crimson-meets-Lightning Bolt territory (“Dead End Host”), Fred Cracklin are taking us on a wild ride into the unknown and supremely welcome.