Nate Young might not have meant the title of his 2009 LP Regression as a description of his musical direction. But the album's stark, slow tones are a sonic reduction compared to his work with John Olson in Stare Case, a project that itself trims back the noise the pair make as a part of Wolf Eyes. Young's path hasn't been completely linear-- Wolf Eyes often sound stark, too, and Regression included a few noisy moments.But his sequel to Regression, Stay Asleep, might be his most minimal work ever.
Each of the album's five songs is built from two basic elements-- a loop of low notes and a metronomic beat. Synths and other electronics add small accents, but often the bass and rhythm march forward unadorned. With this small arsenal of sounds, Young makes music that gets tenser without actually changing much. It's tough to put a finger on how his repetitive notes can feel like a stair-climb instead of a still-life. Every track is pretty clean-- there are no hazy sonics or cloaking distortion. Yet when I listen, I'm less aware of what's happening musically than the mood the music creates.
That mood is almost always eerie and dark. Young's sparse approach gives Stay Asleep tons of negative sonic space, making it as creepy as an unlit basement. The horror-movie feel is similar to that of Prurient's last record, Bermuda Drain. But where Dominick Fernow openly mimics the tropes of 1970s slasher soundtracks, Young's songs are more like analogues to onscreen suspense. In his tick-tock tones, time seems to creep unstoppably toward potential doom.
For Young, though, Stay Asleep isn't so much a countdown to danger as a guard against it, "a hex sign... that can protect against the 'evil eye.'" As he explained to Tiny Mix Tapes, "I like the idea of distracting negative energy with art and holding it at bay." Closer "Collapse" succeeds at that goal, with piano chords that suggest rising optimism in the face of gloom. But it's also the album's weirdest track, with Olson's horns and (ex-Wolf Eye) Aaron Dilloway's tape effects adding a warpy insanity. Ending with such a surreal tone suggests that the title Stay Asleep is an actual command. Maybe this isn't a horror movie but simply a dream, and the only real danger is waking up from its entrancing sounds.
