See also: Neutral - s/t & Neutral - NÄR
First time vinyl showing for Neutral's truly torched Lågliv, an album-length collection of tracks originally released as part of On Corrosion, the ten cassette anthology that LA's Helen Scarsdale Agency issued as their 50th release in 2019. That collection went out of print before most were able to acknowledge its existence, and since Dan Johansson and Sofie Herner increasingly feel like godparents of sorts for the noise-art sensibility that's defined the Gothenburg underground for the past half-decade or so, the upgrade to a wider release not only makes sense, but seems like a duty. The duo are on blistering form here.Turned up, strung out, phasers set to stun in characteristically anti-formalist fashion, riding the white hot noise void that unites the Dead C, Spacemen 3 and Mars. For a certain kind of noise-sympathetic listener, that's the holy trinity right there, and Neutral again prove themselves deserving of such association. Perhaps it's the Swedish language, or the unique chemistry between Johannson and Herner (or a combination of both), but there's also a thrillingly mysterious type of murk that emerges when these two combine, the lo-fi glaze of the recordings creating the sense of some kind of purgatorial transmission or seance-like ritual, half-decayed communications conjured from the unknown. And the unknown is crucial. Neutral might present as an anti-rock proposition, but their best trick is one central to the best of all rock - true allure lies in unspoken spaces in-between. More new sounds soon, please.
