Berber Ox – A Year and a Half
2.15.18 by Ryan Masteller

Let’s see, what’s happened in the past year and a half?

[opens notebook, reads a few notes, eyes grow wide in horror, slams notebook shut]

Who ARE we?

Oh, wait, my mistake – Berber Ox’s “A Year and a Half” came out in October 2017, so maybe if I adjust the timeline things won’t seem so bad…

[opens notebook to different page, reads a few notes, eyes grow wide in horror, slams notebook shut]

Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it – we’re a bunch of animals. And I don’t know what Berber Ox is playing at here – is the Australian artist wallowing in the cerebral grit and grime? Pushing forward some hopeful vibes? Something else entirely? I’m going to go with option 3, because it’s almost impossible to pinpoint any sort of agenda or assign a perspective. Imprint yourself on this thing as you listen to it. I obviously am.

Because there it is, dense as a slab of obsidian, incorporeal like an unsettling fog. “A Year and a Half” marries gurgling electronics, field recordings, and … whatever the hell else Berber Ox has lying around the tool shed, I dunno. Sometimes the tape wants to be lake mist, at others it wants to be a distant but ominously approaching thundercloud. Rhythms skip like pebbles here and there, but, paradoxically, they escape gravity while gravity itself encloses with psychic pressure.

“A Year and a Half” is not necessarily for the faint of heart, yet it rewards deep listening. And if we keep our chins up, maybe the next year and a half will prove less oppressive than the previous.

[eyes notebook, lifts cover slightly, thinks better of it, lets cover fall, folds hands on lap]

Buy buy buy, with your money! At ((Cave)) Recordings.