The outer reaches are dangerous and alluring territory. Music begins to unfold into pure sound as the notion of formulation dissipates. Whether engaging in ruminative audio-research or an unfettered freak-out, the audience is often brought to unfamiliar realms. Due to this fascination, more artists have been drawn to exploration, nudging the unconventional into a more tangible range. It makes one wonder: Will adherent and outsider worlds ever cross paths?
Hum of Gnats are close to answering the question, with an affinity for disorient by way of structure and amorphousness. The duo's inception Purge the Weevil From Yer Midst covers appreciably more ground than its 4-movement, 44-minute tracklist entails. Members Ezio Piermattei and Napo Camassa exercise their multi-instrumental capabilities indulgently to form high-saturation refrains and cacophonous hodgepodges. No matter the intent, Hum of Gnats exert the same idiosyncrasy.
Purge's cover may suggest that its appeal is to be derived from maximal Dada worship, but there's an inscrutable tact beneath Piermattei and Camassa's eclectic sound-collage. That thought may not come into view during the ramshackle "Hop Score" in which its field recordings and obtusely trudging rhythm are subject to mismatched overlapping as opposed to frictionless convergence.
It's in the thick of the album where flux becomes evident. Clouds of saxophone delay overhang the introduction of "Hey, Rube!" as murmurs and miscellaneous found-sound (bells, doors closing, what could be a printer) stir foreboding. A demented schoolyard melody tugs at separate ends of the structure, finally tearing it in two as fragmented jolts of percussive sputters and strained guitar are scattered abroad. At its least stunning moments, Purge sounds like what it is, a debut, but also attains experimentalist etiquette one would expect only a group of greater age to have.
[Stream/Download Purge the Weevil From Yer Midst from Hum of Gnats]
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