Album Stream: Ambient/Noise Soloist Gridfailure Teams Up With Trumpet Player Mac Gollehon on Dismemberment Cabaret
You want something different? We’ve got different.
Gridfailure, the experimental, apocalyptic, dark ambient / dark hardcore brainchild of Dave Brenner, has teamed up with world-renowned trumpet player Mac Gollehon for an entire album, Dismemberment Cabaret. And MetalSucks is here to pipe the whole darned thing right into your ears in advance of its official release tomorrow, May 21.
Gridfailure’s output is always a challenging listen, but in a good way. It’s the same reason that facing an inferior opponent in a sports match, chess game or any kind of competitive scenario is no fun, while playing with someone above your level will make you better even if it’s frustrating at times. To that end, Dismemberment Cabaret is no easy listen — no chunky metal riffs, no hooky choruses, little in the way of straight-forward beats — but this is the kind of stuff that music exploration is made of! It’s exciting, adventurous and a little bit scary, but it’s guaranteed to expand your horizons as a music fan (and perhaps haunt your dreams in the process).
As for Gollehon, you’ve definitely heard his playing before on cuts by Blondie, Duran Duran, David Bowie, Madonna, Mick Jagger and countless others — dude’s played on over 200 records. But trumpet in the setting of Gridfailure’s entire new album — along with other bass and wind instruments — is entirely different, serving as textural accompaniment that provides yet another nuanced bit of the dense sonic landscape on which you can choose to focus your attention at any given moment.
Brenner talks about working with Gollehon:
“After several random collaborative recordings, the two of us talked about doing a record for the past couple of years, so in those anxious early weeks of quarantine 2020, we decided it had to happen anyway. With Mac recording the brass and wind instruments in the stairwells of his building in Staten Island, and I handling the rest of the music and vocals out in Rockland County, we slowly molded the depraved and demented underworld snuff score suite that we now present as ‘Dismemberment Cabaret.’”
Gollehon adds:
“In turbulent times and feelings of doubt, the only constant is to follow the sound and immerse yourself in it. When it fully consumes you and leads your direction, then that’s the sound that has to happen.”
You can stream the full album below, and buckle up for the wild ride. Nefarious Industries will release Dismemberment Cabaret on May 21 across all digital providers and in a limited run of Flamingo Meth cassettes. Find merch bundles and more HERE.
