Originally planned as a solo project for Greg Fox, former drummer with ‘transcendent black metal’ Brooklynites Liturgy, Guardian Alien have morphed into a multi-limbed exercise in feral improvisation and primitive psychedelia. See The World... comprises a single 37-minute noise mantra that manages to be simultaneously intense and hypnotic, as cascading waves of analogue synths and amorphous guitar drift across Fox’s delirious rhythmic spine.
The beats underpinning the first moments owe much to both Indian classical music and the angular thrust of Can’s Tago Mago, but this is far too organic and liberated to sustain such comparisons.
As the quintet’s untamed interplay surges towards crescendo after disorientating crescendo, the overall effect is to transport the listener into an irresistible trance state. Subtle changes in emphasis or approach simply add to the immersive melee; it is only when chaos mutates into eerie calm that there is any kind of respite from the hallucinatory clangour.
Guardian Alien’s sound never feels lazily indulgent, instead it’s a gripping white-knuckle ride through another man’s restless brain.
