Iliac by Ruby A. Keford

An Exploration In Night Terrors

Bradford based Ruby A. Keford makes noisy ambient experiments in the vein of Coil and late 80’s experimental ambient. Armed with a modular and an assortment of unorthodox recording methods, she find the grooves between the noise and pushes them into the edges of these sonic experiments. “Iliac” contains 5 tracks of varying levels of intensity. They all carry a droning weight that resembles audio concrete. A hybrid of dark ambient, noise and modern synth-wave. With the lockdown, Ruby hid away in her flat for well over 3 months, working a bit every day to find new strange ways to destroy the synth’s dreams. “The instruments don’t want to make these droning slags. They want to sound beautiful and show the world what they can do. So I denied them that” she says in an almost arrogant tone. In a way it feels like she has enjoyed lording over something when all feel so powerless in 2020.
The music itself sometimes resembles dungeon synth, but just as often sounds like Stockhausen on opiates. The narcotic vibe, that gaseously steams out the album’s pores, makes for a whirlwind experience in slow synthesizer music. It’s ambient but jarring. It’s peaceful and then harsh. The duality of the music is a reflection of our collective experience in this cursed year. Nothing is happening and we get bored. And then everything is happening and it’s impossible to drown out the pain. Ruby has perfectly balanced the bipolar yearning of being trapped inside, with the fact that many people are still dying outside it.
The sound is like an isolated dirge. The waves drone on but suddenly pop up with spikes of fluctuation and backbreaking bends. The pieces are undeniably catchy despite their outer armor. They’re warm and inviting if you’re used to sleep paralysis. Many albums have been made for the dreamers of the world, but what of those that have night terrors? They too need something that is both relaxing and relatable to their inner pain. With Ruby’s new album “Iliac”, there’s now a soundtrack to some other terrifying realm. Collective Ego Death is excited to present a fresh beach on the banks of hell with Ruby A. Keford’s “Iliac”.

Collective Ego Death is a label dedicated to finding and preserving lost classics and releasing divergent artist's work.

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