Social Junk

One of the furthest edges of avant-garde underground music at the moment is inhabited by the harsh-noise-and-bent-circuit contingent and its proclivity for making interesting sounds that are more an art statement than strictly music. Oakland, California's Social Junk incorporates elements of that aesthetic with experimental dub and ambient soundscaping. The...

By Tom Murphy

June 26, 2008

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One of the furthest edges of avant-garde underground music at the moment is inhabited by the harsh-noise-and-bent-circuit contingent and its proclivity for making interesting sounds that are more an art statement than strictly music. Oakland, California's Social Junk incorporates elements of that aesthetic with experimental dub and ambient soundscaping. The result is music that creeps into the tiny cracks of your psyche and sends a chill down your spine as though you've seen a ghost. If there are subsonic frequencies resonating around the inner chambers of Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves, this band has translated them for human ears. Its songs are the sound of the dark side of the psyche. If there is a no-wave revival, Social Junk is among its brightest lights.

Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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