Beach Sloth

Mattress Grave – Sentient 7.1

                Mattress Grave’s ‘Sentient’ is a beast of a record. The thing goes on for over two hours. Besides that the music itself veers on the confrontational side. Play this sucker loud. It is the only way to appreciate what it does. Whether or not the beats are frantic or not is beside the point. Aurally the textures owe a lot to acid-based forms of techno, amped up beyond belief delivered with large dollops of distortion and outright noise. 

                Beats pummel for the beginning track ‘Every No Rises out Of the Blood’. A dark melody rests underneath all the beat work-outs. Little effects keep it lively as it goes for a rather energetic beginning. ‘Our Mutual Friend Is Deaf - (Numerology Two Mix)’ possesses a focused harshness as it repeats itself, growing angrier with repetition. Indeed the song appears to last for essentially eternity as there is little the way of beginning or end. Distortion and acid are the two main features of many of these songs. A few even possess a kind of minimalism, where parts appear to be working against each other, creating an unstable environment. ‘Broad Untortured Flesh Folds’ takes a very different approach from the rest of the album, using a mellow organ sound to stumble around. It has a rather meditative sound compared to what proceeds or follows it. Compared to the rest of the album it is surprisingly calm, possessing an almost religious tone, in spite of the harsh percussion workout. 

                ‘Sentient’ overwhelms almost every sense. Let it.