Malcolm Pardon’s 2021 debut, Hello Death, was a memorable eulogy for past lives and forgotten dreams. His compositions held their power in the pensive arrangements built from quiet, considered sequences. As he readies Death Revisited, a collection of remixes from his Roll the Dice comrade, Peder Mannerfelt, plus Regis, Klara Lewis, and here, Penelope Trappes, the world gets turned upside down and inside out all over again.
Trappes takes album standout, “Silent Rumble,” and drowns its solemn melodies in a churning vat of funereal mud. If Pardon’s original was a somber accompaniment for crossing over to the other side, Trappes warns that the journey isn’t going to be easy. Twisting Pardon’s original piano melody into a looping synth passage, she brings spectral vocal layers down from the darkness as a shroud. The effect is eerie, buoyed by bleak, slow-moving chord arrangements and electronics flickering like broken light fixtures. Trappes can create an atmosphere like few others and in her reimagining of “Silent Rumble,” the omens are ominous.
Death Revisited will be released February 25 on cassette and digital formats via Pardon and Mannerfelt’s The New Black.
Foxy Digitalis depends on our awesome readers to keep things rolling. Pledge your support today via our Patreon.
