Waterhouse, Russ

***It’s been several years since RUSS WATERHOUSE participated in new music-making as part of the duo BLUES CONTROL, now on an open-ended hiatus. Their four albums (plus one collaborative record with LARAAJI) are much-heralded sonic journeys, processing observations on community and environment to produce a diverse set of instrumental modes. In the past couple years, Russ' solo work has coalesced as the relationships that had created Blues Control fell apart, making almost unconscious commentary on a disillusioned state of mind. This brought him back to the noise idiom that he’d started with, making cassettes as RHEUM in the early aughts. Last year’s cassette release, Amaro, recorded live and mostly improvised, was a relative expression of desolation compared to the verdant collaborations of Blues Control, but a evolution of his earlier work. 1 Minute 2 Midnight rides that forsaken vibe into waves of anger and frustration over lack of agency, emoted via encroaching overlays of noise and mixed with an ear for small details scattered among the big sounds, then patterned into two long-form pieces. Packaged in the spirit of classic avant-garde albums, with enigmatic gold foil printing on the cover and a deceptively utilitarian layout on the reverse, 1 Minute 2 Midnight captures an often blistering, finally cathartic passage through dark territory.