The Haxan Cloak’s eponymous debut was a creaky, groaning bestial presence at the center of an abandoned, apocalypse-ravaged house. There were beats to be sure, but most of the record sounded as if it was recorded in an empty, dusty room covered in cobwebs and shadows, the wind outside making the windows rattle in their frames. It was a wholly organic experience despite the use of synths and programming next to its quiver of detuned stringed instruments and haunted percussion sounds. “The Mirror Reflecting (Part 2),” The Haxan Cloak’s newest offering from his upcoming record via Tri Angle, Excavation, further invests in its electronic leanings, sucking the air out of all its empty spaces and giving the sound an immediate and pristine quality more befitting a claustrophobic nightmare than anything corporeal.
The track opens with a crush of toothy synths before finding a throbbing rhythm, like the steps of giant mechanical terror heard off in the distance, wormy synth tendrils crawling in icy rivulets all around. The track’s sense of build is stunning. Bobby Krlic lets the track shift in subtle peaks and valleys before dropping something overt into the mix, namely, the supple kick drum near the middle where the synths have otherwise slowed to a standstill. From there it spreads out like an evil perversion of Krlic’s label mate Holy Other’s “In Difference,” its naked, baren kick heaving as a growling synth rises and samples and countermelodies start to dot the landscape. It’s breathtaking and bone-chilling. For an outfit whose first record felt more like a sound-art patchwork of live instrumentation and found sound, “The Mirror Reflecting (Part 2)” is a sign that The Haxan Cloak is just as able as a straight up producer. With the promise of its first cut, the wait for the rest of Excavation is going to be hell.
Excavation is out April 15th via Tri Angle
