Pat Maher's outsider sounds have emerged in many different forms; the syrup-laced rap remixes of DJ Yo-Yo Dieting, the ketamine house of Diamond Catalog and of course the wheezing industrial ambience of Indignant Senility. Consecration Of The Whipstain is Maher's second widely-available album under the Indignant Senility moniker, and its long-form abstractions place him a step apart from his peers. Where Plays Wagner took a selection of thrift store charity records as source material, Consecration... works with a wider palette and sees Maher roughly paste together clattering percussion, wretching environmental sounds, opium drones and much more to emerge with a sound that owes more to Iannis Xenakis and Lustmord than to the contemporary set. Maher's noise roots have always given him a rougher, more abstract edge than others in the genre, but this album finds his shadowy ambience chiseled into four pitch-perfect explorations of his very particular alternate timeline. Recorded through amplifiers and microphones to give the music a chance to "breathe," the fuzzy pictures slowly come to life and offer a shocking amount of depth and variety. At times it sounds like a decaying sound strip from a '30s suspense reel, with all the crackle and flicker you'd expect to come alongside that. Maher's sounds take us into places we might not want to go, but there's no denying that once you're there it's hard to wrench yourself free. Deluxe vinyl edition, cut at Dubplates And Mastering, Berlin.
