Andrew Cox has spent decades behind the scenes helping to shepherd other bands' careers into fruition as an artist, Hydra Head Records employee, and video director, but now, with Axed Crown, he has decided to step out of the shadows and feel the sun on his face. After working with the likes of Old Man Gloom, Torche, Helms Alee, Prurient, Jesu, and Sigur Rós, it's no surprise that Cox has cultivated a healthy appreciation for atmosphere and ambience, and with this new solo project, he turns that appreciation into distorted bliss.The vocals are sparse, the riffs are long and languid, the distortion pedel is king—this is the perfect record to zone out to, to let wash over you and haunt the crannies of your dozy brain. Cox handles nearly everything himself—programming, recording, artwork—but is joined by his brother, Andraus guitarist Austin Cox, on the song "Solless," and more ephemerally by the ghosts of long-dead preachers, whose cassette-taped voices haunt the tracks. The end result is a gentle, fetching jumble of shoegaze, ambient, noise, effusive synth, drone, and solitude.Amnesty is out tomorrow, January 29, via Asunder Records, and we're quite pleased to be streaming it in full below.
Kim Kelly is blissing out and blessing up on Twitter.