Providien — Followed By A Wraith

Providien are a dour-sounding duo from Ohio, and this is their debut album. Its smartly, but diy-style, packaged; with glued-on covers and a classy insert. It has ten named tracks across two sides of vinyl. I say “named” tracks, because “Followed By A Wraith” has a collage feel to it; certainly a track like “Salmonella Bunker Blues” is several recordings mashed together. This is a form and approach particularly dear to me; it resonates with the thinking of the early-mid ‘90s US lo-fi underground, as well as albums like “The Faust Tapes”. But where these examples of collage work were often colourful constructions, “Followed…” has a much more monochrome feel to it. Part of this is due to the content of the tracks, which draws from a fairly narrow palette of sounds and atmospheres; and part is due to the four-track production, which is used to saturate a lot of the pieces in tape distortion. This saturation, as ever, serves to reduce everything to a similar tone and colour.

The accompanying press release from Amethyst Sunset, talks of “basement bleakness” and “loner tape grime”; and mentions the work of The Shadow Ring. Providien are certainly to the darker side of things, though perhaps not as dark as their label might think. Its not an aggressive record, nor is it convincingly bleak - or even abrasive, given the amount of tape saturation. Its more a “down” album, of bad trip psychedelics - the album actually starts with really slowed vocals, slurring through the speakers. The bulk of the sound is made up of layers of obliterating guitar, bass and tapes; with detail and colour being provided by vocals, keyboards and junk percussion. Its often a repetitive, lower mid-frequency morass. This smog does clear sometimes: “Next One” is built around a circling riff played on acoustic guitars, whilst “Keep Searching” is essentially a vehicle for an extended guitar solo.

Whilst much of “Followed…” is somewhat wayward, its often an insistent psychedelia. This is due largely to the rhythms produced by the drums and drum machines; which are monotonous at best, plodding at worst - but never pummelling or particularly hypnotic. Admittedly, the junk percussion sounds do add colour, and there are some unexpected twitchy staccato drum stabs in “Salmonella Bunker Blues”; but its often a rather austere framework to hang similarly rigorous and unadorned sounds onto. Indeed, theres a suspicion that with the saturation removed from the equation, there often wouldn’t be much tangible left.

Vocals are, for the most part, buried; and buried good. They’re most easily heard on the tracks where the clouds of tape distortion part for a while. Here, on tracks like “Next One”, “Salmonella Bunker Blues” and “Keep Searching”, they are revealed to be low-pitched, monotonic goth-isms; in other pieces, “Seeker Of The Sun” for example, they are more animated and frenetic - but remain covered in swathes of fuzz.

The press release’s mentioning of The Shadow Ring, seems to relate entirely to a short section of “Salmonella Bunker Blues”; which does indeed sound like a tribute to that band. But, for the majority of  “Followed…”, my brain is compelled to come up with two other scenario’s. The first is the possibility of The Fall and Throbbing Gristle meeting in a rehearsal room at 4.am, at some point in 1979. Mark E. Smith had gone walkabout, so they grabbed a stoned Peter Murphy of Bauhaus; and his mysterious twin brother guitarist, who dreamt of forming a band called Bardo Pond. This may sound like a dream come true, but sometimes you don’t always get what you wished for… The second scenario, is that Providien have stumbled on an ancient cassette of discarded Swans demo’s; and learnt them by rote. A surprising amount of “Followed…” feels like the Swans on half-power: relentless rhythms that don’t pummel, the low crooning voice, instrumentation thats attempts to be grinding - even the acoustic guitars and vocal of “Next One” sound like later Swans, minus any tension. There’s even a passage, near the end of “Salmonella Bunker Blues”, where Providien acknowledge some of Gira et al’s descendants; evolving themselves into a goth-pop Godflesh.

I feel like Providien have the tools to make a great album, but this isn’t it.