Last year’s Endlings album (Raven Chacon and John Dieterich) was a grinding multipronged effort and the duo join up with ex-Black Spirituals percussionist, Marshall Trammell to plant dynamite across the country, seeding aural revolts throughout the land. White People Killed Them is like a three-headed monster that moves in articulated unison, breathing fire at every opportunity to make sure nobody is left unscathed.
Presented as two side-long efforts, White People Killed Them employs a wide-ranging sonic palette, all underpinned by Trammell’s incredible, free-flowing rhythms. Moments of torpid howl slip through unnoticed, Chacon’s electronics rising like ghosts from a buried tomb and sprung into action when Trammell presses the gas and we take off again. Granular synthetic crunch gives way to guitars being strangled in a fit of distorted chaos, pushing deeper into the abyss. At one point Dieterich is channeling a demon Dick Dale, absolutely shredding into a levitated state held aloft by Trammell’s force of will.
Angular guitar shards spring off in different directions, an architectural marvel balancing on Trammell’s gentle, multifaceted percussive blitz as Side B opens. Chacon splits the piece open, firing high-frequency squelch into the empty spaces left by Dieterich and Trammell. After a few minutes of back-and-forth – Dieterich pulling back, Chacon crushing spirits and eardrums alike – Trammell cranks up the engine and we’re flying. Guitars turn into haunted clouds of ethereal sonic gas, trying to escape but still tethered to the bombast and repetitive scowls. Discordant shapes emerge, harbingers of the brutality to come at the end of the world. Things quiet down in the end, Chacon’s electronics becoming distant points of starlight as the drones and rhythms fade away and the revolution rests for tomorrow.
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