Axxonn/Tom Hall/Ambrose Chapel
Masters of the Epic Day
6 Track, EP (2009, Independent)
Related: Tom Hall, Axxonn, Ambrose Chapel.
AxxOnn is Ian Rogers of No Anchor teaming up with fellow Queenslander Tom Hall. Together they make the kind of slow burning shoegaze-cum-drone metal so ubiquitous at present, only these guys camp closer to the ambient side of the kingdom. At their most interesting, some of AxxOnn’s material recalls the euphoric textures you might hear wedged between break beats in an ambient jungle track, with all the battleground-suburbia imagery intact. It’s in the way the melodies sparkle like alien vessels on a pulp science fiction cover.
AxxOnn manage to sound pretty intense while they’re peddling slow and ominous synth atmospherics, but as soon as the overdriven guitars puncture the mix things get a little dull. Despite popular opinion, loud guitars are not by default gripping or frightening or even that euphonic. It’s as if the group is spelling D.R.E.A.D. for us with clear patronising enunciation, and the shift evokes nothing but a longing for what precedes it.
On the other hand, Tom Hall’s solo material is much more convincing. ‘Between Subdivided Distances’ sets the rest of the album on course, evoking the quiet sadness of suburban backyards in the eerier dawn hours. This is what AxxOnn’s debut release Should You Fear Hell? did well, albeit with differently wielded instrumentation. Elsewhere, Ambrose Chapel’s ‘Bulk Carriers at Sea’ resonates like a foghorn through residential vacant lots, and is the best track here by far.
All three acts manage to capture the panoramic tension hinted at on the album sleeve –a tied-up dog in some nondescript suburban backyard, lit by an apocalyptic sky – but it’s when despair is insinuated rather than spelt out that this EP is most successful.
by Shaun Prescott
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