Jim Haynes produces sulphureous visions from a peculiar brand of ill-defined concreteness; any hint to humanitarianism is canceled as states of feverish awareness announce terrible things to come. Throttle And Calibration may be born from the processing of hybrid recordings by different collaborators, yet it exudes the toxicity typical of the man’s finest outings. In a difficult field like this, it takes a special talent to maintain a high level of quality over the course of a lengthy career. In that regard, Haynes rarely fails to deliver the goods.
The five tracks walk convolute paths across variously altered matters and psychological conditions dictated by a thorough annihilation of “positive vibesâ€, as they say in the trade. When the relentless power of ineluctable events overwhelms the mind in all possible ways – from an obliteration of the mere act of thinking to the suggestion of utter hopelessness – that’s an unequivocal sign of success inside and beyond the compositional mechanism. Efficaciously harsh signals carve deep scars in the systems of acoustic receptiveness. Disembodied voices act as mini-preambles to landscapes of desolation contoured by an unspeakable anguish. Violent echoes of mechanical guerrilla wake us up while attempting self-hypnosis within the sonic grain. Slowly sloping drones and deceivingly calmer textures initiate the listener to the cult of a future that’s not going to greet us with a warm smile.
Live with this music for a while and start decoding its concealed messages minute by minute, notwithstanding the lack of luminousness. Remain in search of a sense of harmony that is actually there, only dressed in putrid rags and immobilized by musty ropes. Electrical shocks to desperately revive an already dead humanity; the unique grace of decay emerging from unusually amassed frequencies. It’s classic Haynes, and we need it. Massimo Ricci