Some of the best new music this decade has been through collaboration, as voices from different sound worlds have combined for fascinating results. The latest being the unlikely alliance between noise-rock titans, Chat Pile, and experimental guitarist, Hayden Pedigo.
Following Pedigo’s relocation from Amarillo, Texas to Oklahoma City where the guitarist moved into the same neighbourhood as Chat Pile bassist, Stin, ideas were soon exchanged, and what began as a plan to record a one-off single soon expanded into a cache of songs that would become In the Earth Again.
While their respective catalogues of work may seem worlds apart from each other, this union isn’t as outlandish as it suggests on paper. This decade has seen Chat Pile drill down on existentialism as fiercely as anyone, and even in their bid to expose life’s most gruesome realities, with album titles such as God’s Country and Cool World, their clarion call has been peppered with dark humour and irony to alleviate the stress.
Pedgio has also possessed interesting juxtapositions, perhaps none more peculiar than running as member for the Amarillo City Council. It’s this chamelonised persona that has seen the guitarist oscillate between the absurdity and earnestness that has inspired much of music. This year’s I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away, 28 minutes of rustic majesty that is an open love letter to America’s vast lands.
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It’s Pedigo’s maverick-like tendencies that dovetail perfectly with the guardrail scraping noise of Chat Pile, and on In the Earth Again, they combine for something that evokes desolation and decay. The gritty exterior of forgotten America, slowly unveiled through these songs, and it begins with Outside. Pedigo’s opening guitar interlude, like a prairie hum that is all melody and emotion.
Following is Demon Time, where Raygun Busch drags this collaboration from calm to chaos (“All the castles of the world will burn / But someday all the demons will return / And they will find you / And they will fuck you up”). His voice, almost decimated by dread.
Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo - In the Earth AgainWhile for the most part Pedigo’s performance reins in Chat Pile’s hellish chug, there are flashes of the latter breaking the shackles. On Never Say Die!, Busch is all acid and rancour (“Don’t be caught by the revelation / Don’t be crushed under the violent wheels of change”), while the metallic bass weight Fission / Fusion bleeds into the behemoth that is The Matador. A sea of turbulence where Busch claims that “Everything falls apart”, and it’s here where In the Earth Again hangs on a knife’s edge.
In many ways, Pedigo is the unlikely saviour, masterfully balancing things out with meandering Americana that finds the space between beauty and brutality. Behold a Pale Horse, a post-country drone that is all blue-collar grease and grit, while the wandering I Got My Own Blunt to Smoke possesses a title you would expect from fellow guitarist and the cowboy of drone himself, Blake Conley.
It’s these acoustic-led snapshots that rub off on Chat Pile, revealing new emotional depths. The Magic of the World, a lament where Busch takes the baton from Layne Staley (“You’re with me one more time / Until the world ends”), while lead single, Radioactive Dreams, is like countrified dream grunge that moves to the deepest parts of the soul.
This sensitive aura is maintained on the excellent closer, A Tear for Lucas. Busch won’t pen a more beautiful song, as he almost cries into the microphone in the song’s final verses (“It hurt too much / To watch you drown / All the things / Left to do / I hope what gets done / Honors you … So I’ll toast my friend / While time allows / ‘Cause I loved you then / And I love you now”).
It’s an extremely poignant end that crystallises the sheer emotional power of In the Earth Again. This collaboration, while perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the year, is also one of the most rewarding, as Chat Pile and Pedigo galvanise their boldest ideas. And in doing so, together they move forward with what is arguably their best work.
In the Earth Again is out now via Computer Students ™. Purchase from Bandcamp.
