The mutated sounds of Ryan Mahan’s new electronica project are both a soundtrack and a manifesto. This is the Algiers bassist’s first solo endeavor, and though Dead Meat maintains the Atlanta group’s obsession with concept and bold political energy, it’s a completely different beast. While not as monolithic or contiguous as an imagined film score, The End of Their World is Coming! wraps the listener up in visceral sounds and a unifying symbology that transports them to a fucked-up world that blurs the lines between the real and unreal. The resulting cassette bristles with all the mystery and electricity of an overlooked bargain bin VHS tape.
According to its Bandcamp page, the record “chronicles a series of last rites rituals to the grotesque and decomposed corpse politic of the USA and its colonies,” the end goal of which is “planetary liberation.” These are big, confrontational ideas, but despite the daunting subject material, The End of Their World is Coming! is at its heart an optimistic record. It’s a work that holds to the idea that art has the power to transform, to turn the tables on individual, generational, and societal trauma—even in a world that’s severely bereft of empathy and compassion.
Notwithstanding this bizarrely uplifting framework, very little sunshine leaks through the polluted petri dish of the Dead Meat universe. Instead, the project nurtures a violent yet hopeful anticipation of a stake through the heart of fascism and colonialism, even as other unknown evils swirl about, waiting to strike.
Mahan possesses a unique ability to transform sound into image, but the record’s dystopian tales aren’t well-organized cinematic vignettes so much as splintered flashes of grainy dream sequences. These stark narratives blend fiction with reality and blanket the mundane in a dark shroud of dread. The result is a mix of twisted irony, humor, and morbidity that, much like the work of Cronenberg and Lynch, realizes no difference between art and entertainment. Unsteady tracks like “State of Siege” and “Sluice” drip with slasher flick adrenaline, while the scorching “Through Time” reimagines classic arpeggiated outrun melodies.
Although the orchestration relies on brooding EBM and minimal wave, the tape’s gothic ambiance wouldn’t be out of place in the ghostly confines of the Batcave circa 1982. As with everything Mahan does, the intentionality of the songwriting is as gripping and visceral as a plunge into a frozen lake. This is due in part to his willingness to collaborate with other members of Algiers who pop up throughout the album. Bandmates Lee Tesche and Franklin James Fisher add their unique flavor and style, derailing the train when it starts speeding towards any tedious sonic destination, particularly the sweet synthetic swamp of John Carpenter worship.
Mahan’s awareness of his own influences also sparks diversity within the album, some of which seem to be more a reflection of mindset than of sound. His list of touchstones is sprawling, by his own words including “Wendy Carlos and Caroline K, the grisly boom bap of Havoc/Prodigy and Geto Boys, the punk machinations of Screamers and Big Black, the mutant doom dub of Scientist and Jah Shaka and slivers of EBM, techno, noise and horror soundtracks.” Whether the careful listener can dissect the tape and find the clues to where each of the influences lie is immaterial. What matters more is how they all fall in the realm of outsider music, with political teeth that snarl against any commercialization.
As entertainment, The End of Their World is Coming! is a most enticing tragedy—the haunting of humanity by humanity. Its true power lies not in its ability to transport the listener to another world, but in its incitement to action. Within the spectral confines of this tape, Mahan has stockpiled communal ammunition for the apocalypse. Liberation has never sounded so spooky.
More Info
Bandcamp: dedmeet.bandcamp.com
Instagram: @ryan_algiers