Kristin Hersh - Possible Dust Clouds (2018)

A highly personalised sociopathic gem delivered as a futuristic rewriting of how music works, a melodious breeze with a tail wind of venomous din. A ten-track album, her tenth studio set. Enveloping the juxtaposition of the concept of 'dark sunshine', a brooding solo record creating with friends to expand her off-kilter sonic vision; a squally, squeaky mix of discordant beauty. Feedback and phasing gyrate from simply strummed normality, imagine Dinosaur Jr and My Bloody Valentine cranking up a Dylan couplet. Messing with both extremes of the sonic spectrum: atonal and arrhythmic, a unique sound and a glorious return to form for one of alternative rock's true innovators. 'Sometimes the most subversive thing I can do musically is adhere to standard song structure, sometimes the creepiest chords are the ones we've heard before, twisted into different shapes, and sometimes a story is lived a thousand times before we can ride it like a roller coaster. Nothing wholly unfamiliar is gonna make you look twice. When you can describe a record as being 'deceptively' anything, you're hinting at the sociopathic nature of music. Something I love. Imagine truly buying your own sunshine and charm, but also your darkness and violence; the two sides of your psychology showing each other off in relief. Songs can do that...we can't, really. Darkness we've seen.' Kristin Hersh, July 2018. 'She's still as powerful a presence as she ever was.' Pitchfork