Here’s another CDR from Inner Demons Records, decorated and packaged in their usual diy way; I’m always a fan of labels with a clear visual identity and style. Fog Baptism offers up five tracks, all mired in drone and murk, but all avoiding sounding standard or derivative. 

The first track, ‘Sunlight’, is also the shortest at four minutes; it begins with the sounds of sea waves which dissipate quite quickly, leaving resonant tones not dissimilar to organ sounds. There is a slow melody sketched out, but the overwhelming effect is how strong and resonant the sounds are - it’s very easy to get lost listening to the harmonics and overtones; it’s quietly grandiose and sombre, and an effective opening to the album. Next up, ’Twilight’, is six and a half minutes, and it’s perhaps not too far from ‘Sunlight’. There are still pared back, almost synth-like, lines but the feel is more airy; again there is a looping melody, more ornately decorated than the first track, but there are also buried discordances, particularly in the low end. ‘Twilight’ evokes a tired melancholy, and there’s a interesting tension between that atmosphere and the strength of the tones creating it. ‘Midnight’ has a dark industrial feel, in as far as it sounds like the muffled rumblings of a legion of machines; over this, a stuttering, delayed trill floats, fighting against the bassy murk which ebbs and flows in intensity. Melodic droning lines emerge as the track progresses, again pursuing atmospheres that are dark, sombre, and melancholy, without ever reaching the extremes of those states. The longest piece, at over 12 minutes, ‘Abyss’ is again dominated by drone and murk, but here things feel slower - or perhaps I’m letting the associations of the title influence me. However, there is an underwater feel to the track, as if things have been forced to slow, and hang suspended; it’s not glacial by any means, but it feels slurred. ‘Abyss’ appears more expansive and spacious, and also carries a more effective sense of development or narrative: there are distinct sections where Fog Baptism works though ideas. So there are greater dynamics, and melodic shifts, though the entire track is cut from the same cloth and firmly centred on slow drone. The final work, ‘Trench’, is just over ten minutes, and features a shimmering, skyward drone that forces its way out of a smothering cloud of low-end murk; it evokes the most light and positivity on the album, and in that regard is a satisfying close.

This is another really solid release from Inner Demons Records. What’s most interesting is how Fog Baptism pushes into and against dark, ominous territories but never gets fully subsumed; Sea Sleeper never tips over into simplistic dark ambient or drone. Instead it borrows the sounds and formal aspects, but then wriggles free of those constraints of genre. “Abyss’ might be the best example of this, as the track slips through different passages whist still remaining focussed, however, ‘Trench’ is perhaps the most enjoyable work, a simple tussle between opposing elements that works very well. Recommended.