Fax Gang's supercharged songs sound like murmurs broadcast from virtual reality. The multinational collective—currently comprised of Philippines-based singer PK Shellboy and producers GLACIERbaby, maknaeslayer, and kimj—are known for smashing Drain Gang's vocals and electronics into distorted masses of sound. Parannoul, meanwhile, is a pseudonymous South Korean artist who makes fuzzy sketches using synthetic instruments like MIDI guitars. Within their insular worlds, each act explores feelings of insecurity and depression through different processes, yet both produce similarly raw music.
The new collaborative album by Fax Gang and Parannoul, Scattersun, bursts forth with messy energy. The way Parannoul's gravelly voice drifts over the shimmering keys of opener “Quiet” might sound like After Magic, but the song's movements are choppy and sharp, culminating in sudden outbursts that reflect the artists' restless mindset. Written and produced entirely in text, Scattersun constantly open, expelling static hiss, breakbeats and stray metal knocks from its airtight enclosure. Any quiet space is often filled with sounds, like the revving of an engine or a screwball sax solo.
To match the explosive landscape, Fax Gang explore alternatives to the flattened vocals of their previous work. On the twitchy stream-of-consciousness “Double Bind,” PK Shellboy switches between a partially crushed effect and his unaltered voice, oozing enough dread to match the foreboding UK garage beat. Although outdone by the South Korean rapper Mud the student“Wrong Signal” verse, PK Shellboy's whistling is more convincingly paranoid. Their concern sounds visceral: “Time keeps passing by every day/But nothing gets better,” they gasp, shout tensely and fill with dread.
Parannoul remains a characteristically unassuming presence, anchoring the record with faint keys and a hushed voice. His serene verse on “Lullaby for a Memory” offers a relief from PK Shellboy's growing-up angst, even as it's filled with harsh breakbeats. Only on “Soliloquy” does Parannoul's voice rise to an all-out scream, a powerful moment overshadowed by the surrounding noise. If PK Shellboy longs to turn into a devil, Parannoul sounds like a single inhabitant of Hell.
His lure Scattersun it's its contrasting textures—glittering riffs against static and explosive dial-up synths over hollow drums. Occasionally, the many layers merge into a monolith. The 10-minute interval of the title track is reminiscent of “White Ceiling”, from Parannoul's To see the next part of the dream, but where that song was painstakingly built for catharsis, “Scattersun” stitches several ideas together, each demanding equal intensity. “Sometimes/I feel like I'm in a car accident/There's nothing I can do to stop it,” PK Shellboy announces over the top. The track's spontaneous turns from apocalyptic rave synths to four-on-the-floor sliding to condensed noise may echo the singer's tumultuous moods, but those same abrupt changes can be tiring to listen to. More powerful than any artist's work alone, Scattersun it pushes them into the burning wreckage of reality, where everything seems wonderful but overwhelming.
from our partners at https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/fax-gang-parannoul-scattersun