Hailing from Central Texas, experimental multi-instrumentalist Chris Cones re-institutes his brooding solo project Skullcaster with the new cassette Revaluation. Cones' idiosyncratic home recordings fully capture a gracious disregard for traditional song structure through abstract and often harsh deconstruction of sound waves and genres alike. Seemingly impenetrable walls of chaos gradually fracture and unveil themselves as damaged arrangements of abstruse melody and rhythm, displaying an alien yet refined sense of composition. Revaluation finds Skullcaster re-emerging with an inimitable blend of noise, ambient, and experimental music, forging a fundamentally singular palate for Cones' uncategorizable havoc.
From his isolated and rural home deep in the Texas hill country, Chris' many stints in the urban areas of Texas and California have finally lead him into a quiet and autonomous existence outside of Austin. Cones' own makeshift home studio provided the secluded sanctuary used to write and record Revaluation completely off-the-grid and immersed in solitude. Chris' life-long penchant for the music of the Near East surfaces at multiple points as the predominant aesthetic, including melodic contributions from friend Diego Gonzalez through his spectral performance of the traditional middle-eastern stringed instrument, the oud. Processed vocal samples from Iraqi television commercials are razed and ruined, defiantly transmuting into haunting torrents of wreckage and feedback that convey Cones' deep-rooted intimacy with Japanese noise. Beyond the violent clashes of rumbling sub-harmonic frequencies, rhythmic patterns begin to surface adding pockets of structure and cadence to accentuate the relentless waves of disorder. This wide range of affinities and influences that are woven into Revaluation reveal a glimpse into Cones' musical background, providing a fresh statement from an established artist who remains a dominant force in Austin's dense noise and electronic scenes. This recording, split only between sprawling A and B sides, was mastered by Dylan Cameron at Stassney Studios to heighten and enrich the exotic yet aggressive sound-design of Revaluation.
Chris Cones has been awing and inspiring audiences under the epithet of Skullcaster for many years with an exceptional live show and a steady stream of mixtapes. Making his HOLODECK debut with Revaluation, Cones' longstanding devotion to his unique form ensures that interest will continue to swell while devastating listeners all along the way.
