John Cohen of abrasive Tigerbeat 6 duo Dead Fader has now stepped out on his own, and Deaf Arena is the result.

A low-key record packed full of the kind of squeaks and groans you’d expect to hear in The Haxan Cloak’s basement, Deaf Arena has been sanded down by Cohen into the faint remains of what was once a collection of songs. Fragments of melodies can just about be heard over jagged skeletal rhythms and tube-damaged detuned synthesizers, and it all holds together remarkably well.

It’s not a noise album, it’s definitely not ambient and it’d be a stretch to label it as dance music – Cohen takes only the bits of each genre that he needs, and the result is exhilarating.

Deaf Arena is out now on the Exotic Pylon imprint.

Tracklist:

01 The Deep
02 Promises
03 Sweet Tester
04 Human Distortion
05 Long and Narrow
06 Watch That Searing Flesh
07 Deaf Arena
08 This Place 2