Another surprising move from Montreal's Aun that'll baffle those who pegged this project as just another entrant in the doomdrone horde, Utica combines Martin Dumais's thick blanketing of heavy guitar drone with what sound to me like 80's European horror soundtrack synths and blurps of ancient chopped n' screwed techno.

First is "Utica", which for nearly seven minutes drifts through clouds of gorgeous shimmering synthesizer-like drone, gleaming electronic melodies chiming deep below in the swirling murkiness, a dark and beautiful cosmic driftscape on par with the work of Troum. Overmodulated feedback slowly creeps into the song, the warbling, buzzing howl casting darker shadows against the densely layered drones, and heavier guitar elements emerge, low end chords buzzing and rumbling within the softly rising waves of feedback and sustained synth hum. At higher volume, this piece is breathtaking.

The other track is "Lelehudah", another long dark bliss-out of cosmic drone and billowing feedback drift. Smears of synthetic chorale voices fade in and out as searing distorted guitar floats slowly into view, with more and more layers of sound materializing as the song goes on, forming into a melodic blur that's both ominous and agonizingly beautiful, like My Bloody Valentine performing a Vangelis score with their skull-crushing amplification in place, a massive bass presence rumbling beneath but not overwhelming the sound at all.

Another fine slab of amorphous dark amp-drift, limited to three hundred hand-numbered copies on white vinyl.