Terrestrial Seethings
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Black Pus is the guttural, raw, freeform project of singular drummer, vocalist, & artist Brian Chippendale. A heavy drum foundation and distorted electronics anchor Black Pus’ sound, and remain directly connected to the intensity of Chippendale’s legendary duo with Brian Gibson, Lightning Bolt. Recorded at Machines with Magnets by engineer Seth Manchester, Terrestrial Seethings is pure energy, pure Black Pus, capturing the precision, frenzy, and ecstatic performance in all its glory. After two decades playing and improvising, Chippendale’s imagination and curiosity continue to push his world of twisted joy in expressive new directions.
Chippendale’s approach to crafting music as Black Pus mirrors his restless and indomitable spirit as a creator. The core of the project is his daily and solitary practice of making music and art. The practice is as meditative and cathartic as it is inquisitive and spontaneous. “This art is a river of energy that I jump into and ride along with,” says Chippendale. “It’s not really music made to tell written stories. It’s energy music first and foremost.” The pieces that shape Terrestrial Seethings brim with his preternatural ability to unearth new ideas and explore them with abandon. Like his visual art, the pieces maintain a sense of cohesion as they cascade with brightly colored hues and murky, recursive textures. The album plays with a density and weight with a dynamic approach that gives space for more (relatively) spartan sections. Chippendale layers deceptively straightforward song structures with copious sludgy fuzz, his drum hits cutting through the thick wood like a machete. The record moves with bristled grooves that make its punctuated dramatic bursts all the more electrifying.
Terrestrial Seethings harkens back to the origins of Black Pus by incorporating elaborate overdubs and layers of keyboard into passages built on pure improvisation. The bulk of the album was constructed from improvisation sessions that Chippendale whittled into pieces highlighting the singular peculiarities within. On tracks like album opener “Ping Pong” or closer “Terrestrial Heathens,” Chippendale trades his guerilla-style headset microphone for a performance setup he and engineer/producer Seth Manchester referred to as “crazy mic”, playing keyboard on his left hand, while using the a distorted microphone interchangeably for his voice and to hit drums and cymbals. The album’s wild-eyed dynamics constantly subvert expectations from the album’s more traditionally song-structured first half into the veering conflagration of its second half. Rhythmic stability and pulse give way to gnarled outbursts and stark minimalism. “Hungry Animal” throbs like mid-tempo hardcore before unraveling in its final moments. “Mark My Word” breaks down into a lone bass drum thump before rumbling back into a percussive cavalcade. The “crazy mic” on “Gothic Socks” makes for one of Chippendale’s most raw, unfiltered vocal performances which he embraces: “It came out so funny, so naked, it both makes me cringe and makes me psyched. So I had to put it on.”
Terrestrial Seethings captures the glorious sonic detail of Brian Chippendale’s unpredictable, kaleidoscopic music. Nearly 20 years since his first release as Black Pus, Chippendale remains a fearless artist, continuing to innovate with the exuberance and vibrance that has consistently guided his work. On Terrestrial Seethings, Black Pus takes his place as master conjurer uncovering new levels of distorted bliss, a howling mage reveling in the thrall of deranged loops, percussive wailing and warped synthesizers.
