Another seething mass of chitinous mayhem from Shrimp.
Recorded in August of ’23 at First Avenue Studio and including the live recording from that year’s performance; Brine Shrimp was left to steep for year before being released in time for the 2024 rendition of the band.
Weighing in at a hefty two hours and fifteen minutes, and with a queasy spatial mix by David Curle, Brine Shrimp is a sprawling mass of free-form guitar, vocals (an associated miscellanea), effects and percussion. The listener is thrown about the room with the sound, as the initial dirge collapses into a frantic scramble of activity, glitch and movement as the various pincers and claws dart out from the sonic mass. The sound field shifts as elements are isolated or the entire band is channelled through the snare, sometimes in line with the music and others completely of its own accord. Not even the platform you are listening from is stable.
Brine Shrimp concludes with Pickled Air - which was recorded live and draws the band into a more straight-ahead pummeling sound, with an artefact of that performance.
Credits
Ryosuke Kiyasu - Drums
Jon O'Neill - Guitar
Esmé Newman - Guitar
James Watts - Vocals, Trumpet, Suona
Hidden Life, Life-like Appendages and Maximum Salinity recorded and mixed at First Avenue Studios by David Curle
Pickled Air recorded at Little Buildings and mixed by Jon O'Neill
