TRACK REVIEWS

15 Degrees Below Zero
Sunday Drive (Demo)

Posted: Wednesday, April 25, 2007
By: Ilker Yücel
Editor

15 Degrees Below Zero are certainly a strange entity in the realm of noise music, possessing the form of a jam band, yet producing a sound that is at once cataclysmic and strikingly appealing at times. At work on a new album to follow up Under a Morphine Sky, the band has posted two demos on their MySpace site, with "Sunday Drive" being the first. Driven by a rather monotonous stuttering of tones, almost like a CD caught in a continuous skipping loop, and then overlaid with waxing and waning hints of distorted ambience a la guitar feedback, the track runs on for longer than is comfortable. If not for the sudden and unpredictable bursts of chunky static noise, "Sunday Drive" would be a pretty boring track. This, however, demonstrates part of the band's intrigue, for the moments in between the noise carry some strange resonances, creating the intimations of melodies without actually being melodies. The arrangement is also rather thin, giving the impression that more has yet to be done with this track; let's hope so.