Luminous Volumes: By Skryptor

Skryptor - a new NYC trio featuring members of craw, Dazzling Killmen, and STATS - announces its debut album and book of 13 short stories, Luminous Volumes. Luminous Volumes' companion book fits into Aqualamb's ongoing series - the Brooklyn label has made its name by publishing a meticulously designed, softbound book as the official physical format for each of its musical releases. An illustrated collection of short stories, penned by McClelland and other authors, Luminous Volumes comprises surreal and supernatural tales of bloodthirsty mermaids, deceptive twins, trench warfare, and more. And features Writers: Sean Madigan Hoen, David McClelland, Tom Newton, William A. Turley, Maria Gabriele Baker, Chaunceton Bird, Jeremy Johnston, Ian Caskey, Sarah Blank, Benjamin Smart with Illustrators: Mark Shippy, Fritz Welch, Sarah Austensen Wilson, Guno Park, Jimi Sakai, Paul Nitsche, Rich Hall, Roberto Gomez, Stephany Sovitch, Jenna Cha, The Hopeless Artist, Nate Hillyer and Millie Benson.A joint venture between renowned labels Skin Graft, Sleeping Giant Glossolalia, and Aqualamb, Luminous Volumes will be released March 29th in vinyl, CD, and digital formats, along with a deluxe, illustrated, 250+ page book featuring original horror stories curated by Skryptor bassist David McClelland.Meditative one moment and furious the next, Luminous Volumes is the work of learned veterans with a holistic command of loud-rock techniques. Black Sabbath's hazy stomp; the ecstatic modal improvisation of Mahavishnu Orchestra; the leering bass lurch that haunts the Touch & Go Records catalog; the cerebral bite of New York City's contemporary metal underground: Skryptor jigsaws all these and more into wordless songs that feel both familiar and strange at once, as though remembered from a dream.Skryptor's roots stretch back to the early '90s post-hardcore underground. Cleveland's craw and St. Louis' Dazzling Killmen, two of the more advanced and unusual bands of the era, struck up a friendship and occasionally shared the stage. Of craw, a Pitchfork review states: "Post-hardcore, technical metal, math rock, and experimental noise all flow together under a hazy smog of something that resembles jazz." A Dangerous Minds article describes Dazzling Killmen with these words: "Cathartic and discordant guitar stabs, a jaw-dropping rhythm section, arrangements of baroque complexity, and a harrowing, overbearing, inescapable sense of pure dread."David McClelland and Tim Garrigan - guitarists in craw and the Killmen, respectively - reconnected when both found themselves living in New York in the early 2000s. In Skryptor, they join up with one of their biggest admirers and strongest supporters, Hank Shteamer - drummer for bands such as STATS and Aa, senior editor at Rolling Stone, and an avid fan of McClelland's and Garrigan's since his teenage years in St. Louis. A 2015 craw box set, spearheaded by Shteamer and co-released by Aqualamb, led to two reunion gigs, which in turn became the direct impetus for Skryptor: ?When craw powered up again, I realized I had come to some sort of peace with the idea of making music as an endless process, and began stockpiling musical ideas. That led in a pretty natural way to Skryptor, ? says McClelland.Debut album Luminous Volumes was recorded and mixed by Colin Marston (Dysrhythmia, Kelly Moran) and mastered by Carl Saff (KEN mode, Young Widows). The results range from the muscular, kinetic prog-punk of "Red Mountain" and the wild synchronized shredding of "Raga" to the gentle atmospherics of epic album closer "Summer Blossoms." Fans of the members' prior bands will recognize a similar brand of gritty intensity and brainy intricacy in Skryptor, coupled with a new focus on concision, power and improvisational depth.