Perverts
by Ethel Cain

Wow, this is music.

Opening with an increasingly distorted recording of Nearer My God to Thee, Perverts presents its threatening aura almost immediately and only releases it at the end of its 90 minutes, drawing on isolation, faith, shame, love, lust and existing in a world that feels against you. The longer droning tracks have a suffocating feel as they build in intensity and the more conventional (only by comparison) vocal tracks offer little refuge as the gloom reshapes from something overwhelming and everywhere into something more clearly focussed.

For me, Perverts is primarily a masterpiece in sequencing, you never get quite used to it as its approach shifts around. You'd probably never find yourself listening to the title track in isolation, but as an opener to the record it drags you into the tone and mood of the record and acts as a foundation for everything that follows. There's a harsh beauty to Punish which is swallowed up by the haunted sound of Housofpsychoticwomn; this track's disconcerting repetition of "I love you", until it becomes an almost sinister phrase, is then the backdrop to Vacillator, the record's most sexual track which undercuts all of that with its emotional distance and sheer slowness. In the second half this slowness takes over as the sound decays into a kind of evil Hypnagogic pop, with the sound becoming murkier and, in the case of Etienne, hardly sounding any louder than natural elements. This also represents Perverts at its most beautiful, I could listen to the dual vocals of Thatorchia for hours and the minimal composition of Amber Waves showcases the strongest and most affecting vocals of the project to serve as its conclusion.

All of this doesn't even mention Pulldrone, which to me feels like the core of the record. The writing here is at its most abstract. There's such a specific attention to detail here, the spoken word is pitched just right, sounding distorted and disembodied but not to the point of being impossible to understand, when the word hate is repeated sounding just a bit different it carries this kind of weight to it which is basically impossible to describe. The imagery ("I have always possessed the insatiable need to see what happens inside the room", "I was an angel though plummeting", "I will claw my way back to the great dark") and pace of the numbering give this enough momentum to carry 10 minutes of single note droning violins which sound almost apocalyptic.

I'm a big fan of this kind of desolate music (good music doesn't have to be upbeat in the same way a good story doesn't have to have a happy ending) and I've never heard it presented quite like this. Amazing stuff!

From Cargusbralem 03/13/2025 21:31 | #308022

Unfathomable gloom with pockets of beautiful vocal sections, providing much needed comfort.

Je ne pense pas avoir autant aimé un album dans le style ambient.

Des sonorités drone qui créent une ambiance parfois apaisante d'autres fois inquiétante.

Not my cup of tea, but glad she didn’t sell out.

From Igtonumama 01/12/2025 10:23 | #306934

This isn't what I expected and a complete departure from 'Preacher's Daughter'. An ambient, drone fest interspersed with disturbing lyrics and haunting melodies. It reminded me of the last series of 'Twin Peaks', Unsettling, yet familiar. It sets out what it intends to do! If I had the vinyl, I might have smashed it up at the end and then gone out and bought another.

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