I was blown away by this debut from Half Makeshift, not only because it's one of the more interesting variations on free-floating, ambient doom I've heard in recent days, but also because it's the project of a guy that lives virtually right down the road from Crucial Blast, and who has been one of our fervent customers! I knew that Nathan Michael was engaged in different sound projects, but I had no idea about his Half makeshift project until I stumbled across some music online when 20 Buck Spin first announced that they were going to be releasing a new album from him. Further digging revealed this initial release on the Utech label, a 35 minute disc, one track, where Nathan crafts an amazing nocturnal dronescape out of crackling feedback, austere piano figures, fragments of strings, glitchy electronic grit, and deep, crushing powerchord sludge, almost like a meeting between William Basinski and Corrupted's Llenandose de Gusanos. Aphotic Leech is mysterious and evocative, beginning with crackling static and electronic shards breaking apart in an empty soundfield that is slowly filled with the ringing notes of a piano, it's notes forming a sad, elegiac melody that floats above what sound like xylophone tones and a thunderous distant rumbling that is slowly consumed by rust. As the peice progresses, the distressed electronics, crumbling drones and distorted rumbles become more prominent, sometimes threatening to consume the clusters of piano notes altogether; it's not until almost 12 minutes into the track that the first monstrous powerchord appears, a thundercrack of black doom that splits the sky. By the time we reach the last half of Aphotic Leech, we're plunged into a dread filled sludgescape of grinding, in-the-red doom metal riffs so distorted that they seem to crack and dissolve more and more each time the riff repeats, while machine noises, plaintive piano, and fractured glitches all swirl together into a black roar. A truly amazing debut, and I still can't believe that this album actually came from around here - the Western Maryland area isn't really known for producing avant-doom albums like this! Dark and abstract, Half Makeshift swims in the inky depths with artists like Bohren und der Club of Gore, Black Boned Angel, Mrtyu! and Sunn O))), but the use of electronics here is unlike anything I've heard before. Great packaging too, presented in a striking foldover jacket printed in gold, black, and grey, the back cover depicting a gruseome photo from Max Aguilera-Hellweg that depicts a surreal figure like something out of an Adam Jones video, the front cover a black-toned jellyfish, and the disc attached to the interior sleeve by a plastic hub. Highly recommended !!!