Sonancy

Released

When Loop broke up in 1990, guitarist Robert Hampson moved on to Main, in which he used sampling technology and advanced (for the time) production techniques to deconstruct the role of the guitar in music. Eventually, he moved into full-on sound art and electroacoustic composition, working at the INA GRM studio in Paris. This Loop “reunion” (Hampson is the only returning member) feels almost atavistic by comparison with that work; he’s written a bunch of cranked-up rock songs propelled by crunching, buzzing guitar riffs and pounding, almost surf-rock beats. A couple of semi-ambient interludes (“Penumbra I,” “Penumbra II”) serve as reminders that, yeah, this is the Main guy, but crunching industrial-punk songs like “Interference” and “Halo” have as much if not more in common with the harsh, buzzing sound Wire explored on their Read & Burn EPs and the Send LP than anything in Main’s back catalog.

Phil Freeman