Pedestrian Deposit

Early 2000's emergence of neo-noise punks like Wolf Eyes appeared to spell a trip to the sidelines for Merzbow-derived noise artists. Meanwhile, Jon Borges fired his first harsh noise blast as Pedestrian Deposit in 2003 (at age 16), but since then his sheet metal symphonies have been tempered by ambience. Adding new member Shannon Kennedy on cello and violin further varies the grain, density and pitch of drones that progress simply, like driving through a cityscape of abandoned tenements. "Impermanence" pits a clutch of creaky overtones against the idling engines of machinery that eventually awaken. Borges even allows "music," like the little handfuls of piano that introduce and then usher out "Former," to sneak into his world. The human reference amplifies the Hopper-esque loneliness of figures in an urban landscape. Closing track "You Didn't Break Me" appropriately reaches back into the white and pink frequency overload halfway into its 20-minute run. Austere bridges the worlds of power electronics and haunted ambient music in a truly innovative way.