Fabio Orsi – Stand Before Me, Oh My Soul (CD)

Perhaps better known for his Drone work, here Orsi takes us on a wild trip through pummelling drums, tectonic noise crescendos, glimmering sheets of white out guitars and bleeding edge psychedelic wonderment. At times heavy, dark and angry and at others kaleidoscopic, shimmering and bright, “Fabio Orsi – Stand Before Me, Oh My Soul” is a testament to an artist at the top of his game. The addition of Rich Baker on drums truly takes Orsi’s sound to another dimension, previously unreachable perhaps through more minimalist set ups, but this is another beast altogether.

Beginning with “Naked Trance”, where a creeping static tricks you into a false sense of solitude, you are thrown into a psychedelic space freak out immediately as the drums crash into motion. The track is hypnotic with its repetitive rhythms and synth passages merging together to form a collage of bizarre colours and imagery. “Papa, show me your Blues LPs” is a beast of a track, with wailing noise and thunderous drums forcing you against a wall, battering you with their force and intensity. “My Awesome Drugs Propaganda” sees Fabio & Rich reaching full on Punk Rock territory with the darkest and heaviest track on the album, combining a foreboding doom bass line with clattering drums. The final 3 tracks on the album offer up some solitude, with “Please Could You Hide That Ghost Noise?” bringing a glazed melodic drone to the album that is so welcomed and so earned after the first half of the album.

For many, this will be an album full of anxieties and difficulties. It can feel overbearing and aggressive at times, but these moments are countered by much more subdued and melodic pieces. It is this contrast in textures and emotion that really lifts the album; the unforgiving first half is made so much better by the beautiful second half and vice versa.

A highly recommended listen for those wishing to expand their palette and negotiate something a little more abstract and abrasive.