Anguish - Anguish (2018)

The dark, impossibly intense dirges, industrial noise onslaughts and banshee-like free jazz wailing heard throughout Anguish could be an imposing soundtrack for a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future. This powerhouse, inter-generational offering and RareNoise Records debut brings together an unlikely gathering of members of the New Jersey-based experimental hip-hop group Dälek (electronic musician and vocalist Will Brooks with guitarist-keyboardist Mike Mare), the Swedish free jazz group Fire! Orchestra (tenor saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, drummer Andreas Werliin) and the classic ‘70s German krautrock band Faust (keyboardist and 68-year-old founding member Hans Joachim Irmler).

Recorded in just three days during the summer of 2018 at Faust’s Scheer Studios, located in a former factory perched on the banks of the Danube in Swabia, Germany, near the Swiss border, Anguish stands as a hard-hitting manifesto for the next evolution in the hip-hop legacy.

From the droning opener, “Vibrations,” fueled by ambient loops and sparked by Gustafsson’s cathartic, blast furnace intensity on tenor, to the slamming, industrial-tinged closer, “Wümme,” Anguish is an iron fist upside the head of complacency. “Cyclical Physical” is the sound of rage with an in-your-face rap from Brooks while the moody title track features a jazzy backdrop that has Gustafsson nimbly shadowing Brooks’ pointed spoken word rap. “Gut Feeling” is a hard-edged noise rock / metal romp with Brooks shouting the combative refrain: “Fuck your frail feelings!”

The instrumental interlude “Brushes for Leah” is a dark, imposing soundtrack underscored by drummer Werliin’s subtle brushwork while Brooks spits thought-provoking verse with flowing aplomb on the ambient backdrop of “Healer’s Lament.”

Gustafsson erupts with caustic abandon on the throbbing instrumental “DEW” then blows sinuous lines around Brooks’ vitriolic rap on the low-end industrial groover “A Maze of Decay.” Werliin's thunderous backbeat drives the kinetic closer “Wümme,” a krautrock flavored instrumental named for the rural German town where Faust formed in 1971.