Punk Authority

As one half of the shape-shifting noise duo Yellow Swans, Pete Swanson toyed with violent tones, anxious synthesizers, and rewired drum machines in various distorted combinations. After that group's dissolution, Swanson's solo career took on a much more focused approach, starting in a minimal techno mode but folding his experiences from years in the noise scene into the pulsing beats and ominous basslines. The four-song EP Punk Authority, Swanson's third release in the technoise vein, is some of his most punishing and relentless material to date, with harsh noise textures battling caustic beats in a remarkably claustrophobic environment. Album closer "Life Ends at 30" is particularly harrowing, perhaps some of Swanson's most intense sounds in a body of work already characterized by brooding intensity. ~ Fred Thomas