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Pedestrian Deposit, "East Fork/North Fork"
As much as I enjoyed Pedestrian Deposit's first "post-noise" effort (2009's Austere), I didn't think it was nearly on the same level as what Jon Borges and Shannon Kennedy were capable of delivering live.  That disparity has now been conclusively remedied, as this expanded reissue of a 2010 Housecraft cassette captures the duo at their mesmerizing, crackling, and eerie peak.
Pedestrian Deposit's evolution since Kennedy's arrival has been quite a rapid and dramatic one, which is no surprise: adding a second person to a former one-man operation is bound to have a big impact.  Particularly if that one man is best-known as a harsh noise artist and the new member is a cellist.  Remarkably, however, there did not seem to be any period of awkwardness or growing pain, as Austere debuted the more restrained Pedestrian Deposit sound beautifully.
Still, it was already a snapshot of very different band by the time it was released, as Jon and Shannon's progression has been much faster than their recorded work can keep up with.  It is hard to articulate exactly what has changed since the recording of that album and these four songs (recorded between 2009 and 2010), but it seems like PD have grown a bit more adept at exploiting the full potential of Shannon's cello work.  For instance, there is actually a melancholy plucked melody at the beginning of "A Blessing."  Such excursions are the exception rather than the rule though: East Fork/North Fork is still very much a hazy, drone-centric, and forlorn-sounding album. Nevertheless, a bit more warmth and color have definitely crept into the picture this time around.  Not much, of course, but enough to imbue the music with a little more character and humanity than I expected.  It makes a big difference, as the fleeting glimpses of life make the surrounding haunted, creaking emptiness seem significantly more affecting and unsettling.
Of course, a lot of the album's success is also due to the fact that Borges keeps getting better and more assured with each passing year.  While there is one welcome and well-timed blast of stuttering static in "Strife/Meridian" that reminds me of Pedestrian Deposit's more violent past, Jon has made the transition from explosive noise artist to architect of slow-burning ominousness seem effortless.  Throughout these four pieces, slow-moving bowed tones actively quiver, swell, and dissipate amidst often little more than a bed of hiss or low-hum.  This is a lot of open space here, which makes the cello sound especially lonely and endangered.  Also, I was especially struck by the attention to textural detail throughout the album, such as the low rhythmic swells, hums, crunches, and scrapes that call to mind distant machinery.  There is a definite sense of place, even if it is a rather foreboding one.  That dark atmosphere is further deepened by the fact that these pieces are not at all prone to repetition or stasis–they gradually unfold, which means that something always seems to be on the verge of happening.  
East Fork/North Fork makes me feel like I am alone in the ruins of a deserted town…or perhaps not alone (in a bad way).  It is never quite clear whether the pervading mood is desolation or quiet dread, which is the kind of tense ambiguity I like.  This might be the best album that Jon Borges has released yet.
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