My Continuing Battle With Material Reality by Boduf Songs

submitted by Stephanie Marlow

From the opium flow of the tracks, running heady into one another like tributes to river, to the muted-industrial-electronic-effected drums underscoring the spiraling melodies and fluttering drones, to the clean and rich guitar, abstracted cycles and feedback walls, Boduf Songs’ Stench Of Exist feels dark, like whispered doom metal masquerading as a lullaby. Listen to the new track “The Rotted Names” now via Tinymixtapes.com.

Boduf Songs began in 2004 as a predominantly acoustic project, in the form of a self-titled record made by Mat Sweet in his small chambers in gloomy Swaythling, Southampton, England with a modest set-up centering around a mini-disc recorder and a PC with a 4Gb hard drive. In 2006, the follow-up Lion Devours The Sun refined the stripped-down sound into darker forests and denser compositions, exploring the same themes with increased deliberation and experimentation. 2008’s How Shadows Chase the Balance expanded the palette further beyond the acoustic finger-picking and into shimmering electric territories. “…A record filled with obscurity, secrecy, and wickedness” according to Brainwashed.com. In 2010, Sweet brought us This Alone Above All Else In Spite of Everything, featuring new levels of howling despair, still filtered through a stoic, disarming, calm; “My hammer feels the urge/ To nail you to the ground/ To smash one through your cheek/and splinter into wooden floorboards.” For 2013’s Burnt up on Re-Entry, Sweet underscored the heavy and experimental undertones found on This Alone with more electronic elements, as well as occasional scorched-earth guitars. The album was hailed as “despairing and unfriendly… the richest and most surprising Boduf release yet” by Pitchfork.