End Of Times

David Harrow has been featured at these pages many times before, a slew of tracks and releases taking in modular synth ambience, dub, acid and music from his time in the ON U Sound collective, recordings with Andrew Weatherall and previous to that with his album with Anne Clarke. His back catalogue is rich and varied. David has been a resident of Los Angeles since the early years of the 00s. This year David turns 60 and is celebrating with monthly releases. Last week he put out a nine track with Little Annie, titled End Of Times, and it already sounds like a 2024 highlight.

Little Annie (aka Annie Anxiety) is an American artist- singer, poet, writer, actor- and has a similarly rich musical background, including recordings with Adrian Sherwood's On U Sound, with Crass, three solo albums and appearances with Nurse With Wound, Finitribe, The Wolfgang Press, Swans, Kid Congo Powers and Coil among many. She hasn't made much music since 2011, so End Of Times with David marks a real return.

End Of Times is tense, throbbing electronic dub with Annie's spoken word/ poetry pointing fingers and pointing realities, taking down notes and asking questions. It's a strongly worded, poetic and vehement response to the world of 2024, kicking off with the lines, 'This is the sound of one hand slapping/ This is the edge of the cliff we're nearing' and adding a little later, 'This is a typeface of a mass nervous breakdown'. 

Annie's conclusion, 'We've all lost our fucking minds', followed by the realisation we might not be at the bottom of the barrel yet- 'How low can we go?' 

There is more, much more, memorable lines, expertly delivered in a low drawl, 'This is the death knell of critical thinking/ This is tinnitus from the Tower of Babel/ This is your misery rendered a hashtag/ This is the sun burning your crops'. 'This', Annie concludes, 'is not the happy hour'.

There are six remixes including two from South London dub- techno kings Rude Audio, both rattling with percussion and chugging drums and acres of echo. The Protean Remix romps by over eight and a half minutes, gathering pace and tempo, with mini explosions going off in the background behind Annie. The Immutable Remix is slightly shorter but no less intense, plenty of dub business going on. There are three other remixes, all sending Annie and David off in different dub influenced directions, from Martini Bros, Misled Convoys and Ono- Sendai. To wrap things up there is an instrumental version and an acapella (which could well find itself popping up all over the place). 

Versions for every occasion. Listen to and buy the whole EP at Bandcamp. 

In 1992 David and Annie worked together at On U, recording I Think Of You, a co- write with Doug Wimbish with Adrian Sherwood at the controls, a superb piece of sultry early 90s sci fi dub.