Aaron Dilloway - The Gag File (2017)

 

Tape Music / Noise / Industrial

RIYL: Lucrecia Dalt, Wolf Eyes, Merzbow

★★★½

If you happen to be looking for a record to soundtrack your next DIY basement haunted house, look no further than The Gag File, an album chock full of ghastly hellscapes that linger even more unnervingly in the grainy mist than the ventriloquist dummy adorning the sleeve. Whether you're in the mood for some sci-fi space alien thrills, craving that unsettling feeling of wallflower anxiety sitting on the couch at a party where things are about to go horribly wrong, or just want to aurally imbibe the laughing gas of a deranged and disgruntled researcher performing experiments on unwilling victims in a backwoods torture chamber, Aaron Dilloway has just the scraping metal noises for every occasion, all exquisitely arranged into pop-sized nuggets for your listening displeasure. Obviously this type of music is not for the faint of heart and is extremely niche even for those with adventurous taste, but there's no question that The Gag File is a crowning achievement in the lurid realm of spooky atmospherics.