SCOTT  WALKER

Bish Bosch

[4AD]

Scott Walker’s output has been sporadic over the last 30 years, but he always makes the music of nightmares. On his first album since 2006, he interrupts stretches of silence with disjointed moments of off-kilter musicality. Bish Bosch is full of mechanical sounds—from the industrial hammering intro of the opening track to guitars that sound like television static and the repeated motif of sharpening knives. Hitchcockian strings and massive echoing drums only add to the sense of foreboding. His operatic voice, meanwhile, has tremendous potential for camp, especially when he delivers witty asides like, “Nothing clears a room like removing a brain.” The same goes for the glockenspiel that taps out “Jingle Bells” following chiming sleigh bells. Walker’s humor adds extra creepiness, making him the evil clown of art rock. For all the posturing of artists in supposedly threatening genres like black metal and gangsta rap, few artists create music more terrifying and psychologically unsettling. –Amanda Farah

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