Boston collective tap into 80s DIY spirit
Who?
Obelisk Ruins is a collective from Boston, Massachusetts led by producer Andrew Petzold-Eley. He describes the amorphous group as a “sonic cut-and-paste mutant project”, which is in many ways an apt manifesto that sums up their penchant for flitting between sounds, rhythms and themes, often on the same track.
Why Obelisk Ruins?
As a rule, the group’s soundscape-like recordings have a dark, dreamy quality to them. They explore themes ranging from authenticity to deconstruction and excavation. While not necessarily for the faint-hearted, or those who have a particular fondness for a jovial synth melody here and there, Obelisk Ruins are perfectly suited to anyone fascinated by what lingers between the world we know when we’re awake and the one we find when we’re asleep.
Tell Us More…
The collective’s debut release came in 2021 with the EP ‘Hold Yr Tongue’. The eerie combination of ambient synthesisers, garbled samples and low, nagging basslines buried deep in the mix, result in somnambulant, gently menacing tracks like ‘Thought_Mechanism’ and ‘I Told You It Was A Vision (Dub)’. The group’s latest release, ‘Thought-Vision-Doubt’, was assembled with the help of collaborators Douglas Tesnow and Evan Hydzik, and focuses on the cut-and-paste part of Petzold-Eley’s edict. Two of its tracks clock in at over 10 minutes and feature manipulated samples in the style of obscure 90s American bands such as Fingerbones and Lightpost. The result is a jet-black, hypnotising mutation of trip hop ambience. It’s utterly unique, and absolutely worth your time.
‘Thought-Vision-Doubt’ is out via Bandcamp
