4 out of 5

Label: Fonolith

Produced by: Neil Scrivin

Neil Scrivin’s Doomlode project feels misleadingly simple: short, lo-fi bursts of a beat, with one-line samples looped. At a glance, it could be a step between his self-titled atmospheric work and the retro bounce of Phono Ghosts, and from that point of view, ‘The Nuclear Laundry’ may seem too simplistic, like a side project that gathered enough ideas for a full release. But I think that (maybe obviously) ignores the album’s very focused tone and themes, and also does not give credit to what happens when you give yourself over to the listen as an album, and not a collection of shuffling samples. In that sense, it slots in with Scrivin’s story-based titles, except I consider this more immersive, as it’s linked to reality, as doom and gloom as you’re willing to allow it to be. Granted, the on-the-surface radiation / environmental mantras (and the analog sound) cast it back some years, but part of the “point” of this recording, to me, is how the effects of nuclear fallout are, y’know, not of short duration, and thus the kind of repetitive nature of many of the samples ends up being tied to the cyclical feel of such disasters – that things like this will keep happening; that we’ll keep talking it away. The album ends with the reminder of the slow hiss of things: ‘Still Leaking Slowly;’ and the bandcamp page further warns “Windscale will cost the Earth” – also a song name, but just doubling down.

The Nuclear Laundry has an airy vibe to its initial warnings, with the beats taking a decidedly darker feel on ‘His Body Itself Became Radioactive’. From this point onward, up until a kind of “acceptance” of our fate with ‘Out into the Irish Sea,’ the music just keeps getting murkier, and more hostile. That last portion is not a return to the earlier bounce, rather it gets sedate: the end is certain. We’re resigned.

Scrivin’s work is never lacking in atmosphere, but with Doomlode, he’s absolutely tapped into something that feels equally timeless and retro, satisfying on a lot of musical fronts, and then also nailing an emotional connection. The surface level simplicity of this can be a bit misleading, but give it time to unnerve, and it’s hard to shake it, or to find music that achieves the same lasting effects.