Writhing Squares - Out of the Ether

Writhing Squares have been conjuring up cosmic slop from the Philadelphia underground for a few years now, mixing growling bass, motorik synthesis, and skronking sax into a heady brew of punk-laced progressive R'n'R. The duo of Daniel Provenzano & Kevin Nickles emerged in 2015 with their self-released Gemini Blues 7-nch, following it up the next year with their debut album In The Void Above for the renowned Siltbreeze imprint. Out of The Ether is their sophomore effort, & first for Trouble In Mind. The album consists of 5 tracks of minimal, droning ambience, overtaken at times by Nickles' wailing, sax skronk; a mixture of the soulful runs of The Stooges' Steve McKay & the no-wave stabs of James Chance - drum machine, and Provenzano's guttural basslines that add an industrial menace to a locked-in groove and lysergicly introspective lyrics. Album closer A Whole New Jupiter takes up all of the LP version's side two, slingshotting the listener over the event horizon and thru the center of a sonically sculpted black hole, it's relentless motorik dirge evolving over the course of the track's 19-minute run time into an abstract pulse before lurching back into the groove, riding it into the sun.