A bit less than a year since his last album, This is Broken, Matt Weston presents a double album in his idiosyncratic style that draws from a seemingly infinite number of styles and genres. He still solidifies it into a coherent whole, however. Communism has Appeared on the Scene draws heavily from geographic spaces and their effects on sound, most apparent through his greater implementation of field recording elements. With that said, it is another excellent, hyper-kinetic outburst of sounds that are at times confusing and disorienting but always make sense in the end.
The passing of cars and a steady beep appear early on the album in "Isolate Maul Kill," giving some sense of a geographic reference point that is supplemented with rhythmic digital glitches. Weston takes the music in darker directions at times, with cinematic outbursts cutting through aggressively, before eventually reforming into an almost brass or horn type timbre. Overall, the structurally is nicely erratic—jerking between digital noises and shrill tones—all the while featuring a deep, hollow undercurrent below. The short "Burials to Understanding" follows, where he blends high speed chase music fragments with digital glitching, metal clattering, and unfurling magnetic tape, ending in a mass of multi-layered wobbling tones.
The delicate chimes that open "Chalkstone Millrace" first herald a sense of spaciousness, but Weston soon introduces what sounds like feedback humming and what could pass for guitar squall to shake things up, albeit in a carefully controlled manner. A massive low-end rumble is brought in that balances out the lighter bells, and a buzzing insect-like sound and distant croaking give an added sense of depth, before bringing things to a conclusion with sparse crackling and bizarre electronics.
"Here They Come Spinning out of the Turn" is appropriately titled, being a windswept pile of sounds that Weston dials back to reveal the source: rapid fire drumming that was somewhat obscured by processing. To this he adds what sounds like a slowed emergency siren, then lets everything fire off into a whirlwind of noise. Closing piece "From the River to the Sea" is at first open space with gurgling, field recordings, a mix of tones, and what sounds like a heavily treated eventually horn shows up. By the end, Weston eventually brings most of his impressive repertoire: bleeping electronics, sputtering feedback, an excellent use of reverb, and complex, traditional percussion. Spacy tones, dense electric pulsations, and a galloping beat eventually ride off into an electrical storm of noise.
Discussing actual instrumentation on a Matt Weston record is almost always an impossibility, and that is no different on Communism Has Appeared on the Scene. Electronics, effects, and sound generators of non-specific origin all appear in various states of treatment, although drums do appear at times in a more natural state. Weston has been on a consistent streak from year to year, releasing albums that defy any sort of genre boundaries, and the use of sounds that are largely unidentifiable. But never is it a sloppy collage or just effects for effects sake. There is clear and deliberate structure and composition here, but the unpredictable nature of his work is what makes it so memorable and fascinating.
