I was one of the seemingly infinite number of people to join the Raccoo-oo-oon train just as it was coming to a halt. We missed out on a truly amazing band that we’ll only be able to enjoy through it’s back catalog. Thankfully, some of the members have gone on to individual projects, such as Daren Ho, who is the sole mastermind behind Driphouse. And maybe that’s the silver lining because his new project is so drastically different from Raccoo-oo-oon that it might have been necessary for them to break up in order to hear such a fine recording.

Sewer Mist is a weird ass tape oozing with warbly synths. I’m fairly certain there isn’t a single non-synthesized sound on this. But that’s OK. I’m not prejudiced against dudes who want to “fake sounds.”

I get this strange feeling whenever I listen to Sewer Mist that makes me feel like I’m driving a beat up Pinto through a wormhole. It has a filthy, spacey, down to earth feeling which I’m pretty sure I’ve never experienced listening to anything else before. The undulating drones are sprinkled with grit. Sometimes he actually adds in little flecks and scratches and then sometimes it’s just the lo-fidelity of the tape but either way it’s awesome. Too often you have these synth drone guys that go all clean and crisp. Not Driphouse. Most of the time he has his synths competing for volume with the tape hiss and he does it to such wonderful effect.

Sewer Mist will please a lot of people. Raccoo-oo-oon fans will like it just because it’s Daren Ho and then there’s those of you who will listen to as much synth drone as you can get your hands on. I’m pretty sure whatever angle you approach Sewer at, you’ll be extremely pleased with the results.

Driphouse
Gel (e-mail) (distro)

Posted: 05|5|09 at 5:28 pm. Filed under: record reviews.
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