Boduf Songs, "Stench of Exist"
As much as I like Boduf Songs, I have to admit that the albums began to all blur together for me at some point, as Mat Sweet’s hushed, morbid, and deliciously Lovecraftian aesthetic is an extremely specific one that he has mined for quite a long time (though 2013's Burnt Up On Re-Entry gamely tried to shake-up that formula).  I certainly do not blame him, as it is a very appealing and distinctive niche, but there is quite a lot of similar-sounding material out there as a result.  And now there is still more…sort of: Stench of Exist is a return to the "classic" Boduf sound, but with some healthy vestiges remaining from Sweet's more adventurous recent work.  The end result is probably one of Mat's finest albums to date and one that definitely features a couple of Boduf's strongest songs ever.
Stench of Exist begins, quite appropriately, with a disorienting minute of gnarled howls, blasts of static, stuttering mechanical noises, and an ominous hum, evoking everything from a fractured vision of the apocalypse to the fitful awakening of something large and evil.  That makes for an amusing and excellent segue into the album's first real song, the elegant, slow, and subdued "My Continuing Battle With Material Reality."  Built upon an unadorned, descending organ motif, "My Continuing Battle" gradually augments its skeletal structure with a host of inspired touches, such as a wonderfully muted and squelching pulse and some surprisingly heavy and well-timed orchestral swells.  Though it also boasts some fine lyrics, the real achievement is how all of the various components come together to form such a throbbing, simmering, and masterfully controlled whole.
The following "Thwart By Thwart," however, takes a very different and unexpectedly anthemic direction.  Though I had no idea that Mat had that type of song in his arsenal, the pounding tom-tom rhythm, fluid piano hook, and unexpected crescendo of hand claps proves to be a deliciously perverse foil for his grim lyrics.  It truly should not work, yet somehow it does.  Later, "Head of Hollow-Fill and Mountain-Top Removal" offers up yet another surprise divergence, opening with a heavy Pete Swanson-esque industrial-techno pulse before morphing into a brooding interlude in which a computer-voiced narrator shares a poetic and creepily dystopian reverie over swells of feedback and strange snatches of melody.  Stench of Exist’s final (and greatest) triumph then occurs shortly afterward with "Modern Orbita," which enhances the standard Boduf slow-motion gloom-crawl with muscular, vibrant drums and a masterfully executed swarm of fluttering, burbling psychedelic touches.  It is without a doubt my favorite Boduf piece that I have ever heard, as everything again comes together brilliantly: it is smart, melodic, bass-heavy, propulsive, hooky, warped, and unpredictable in all the right places.  I cannot overstate how eerily graceful Mat's touch can be on this album.
For the most part, the remainder of the album reverts back to business-as-usual, which is only a flaw for those expecting a start-to-finish, out-of-nowhere masterpiece or a complete reinvention.  Those who are picking up the new Boduf Songs album because they like Boduf Songs should have no problem with that.  I definitely appreciated that much of Stench of Exist transcended my expectations, but it is hard to fault Mat for sounding exactly like himself, especially since he is so good at it.  Also, some of lyrics in the more straightforward pieces are quite good as well (I especially liked "the years have razors for teeth").  The only other potential flaw is that Stench of Exist is somewhat heavily loaded with instrumentals, which could cynically be viewed as padding the album with filler.  I personally see them more as necessary transitions though: given Mat’s narrow aesthetic, 11 songs in a row would yield diminishing returns very quickly and I suspect that he grasps that.  Though they are far from album highlights themselves, the instrumentals are certainly not bad and they provide the "palate cleansing" necessary to give the more substantial pieces a chance to make their full impact (and they do).  Stench of Exist is a thoughtfully constructed and absorbing album rather than a collection of hot new singles and it is sequenced accordingly (though those looking for great singles should definitely check out "Modern Orbita").  As a Boduf Songs fan, this is exactly the kind of album that I needed to make my ears perk up again.
 
