Praying For Oblivion is the “industrial noise/power electronics project” of Andrew Jonathan Seal. There are numerous PFO releases on various Bandcamp label pages and, as of this writing, there are seven singles posted on his personal page that are drawn from throughout Praying for Oblivion’s lengthy career. And, for all my fellow noise lovers, among those seven songs you’ll hear quite a variety of good noise. Let’s do a quick cycle through, shall we?
“Tote Stadt” is a nice even mix between electronic chords and static. “The Ultimatum” features a wall of noise effect with some very distorted vocals; it struck me that this tune would be really thrilling to experience live. Probably my favorite of this group is “RuneFilledMind” which is very beat driven and offers various noise features throughout. “Bookburner’s Anthem” has lots of nice layers, including distorted simulated helicopter pulses, plus machine noise and some underlying keyboard drone chords. “Topography” is a collaboration with Wim Van Gelder that features buzzing and humming and various rhythm creating noises dropping in and out. “Terminal Giubileo: mix Rome 2000; TeZ.” is another collaboration – this time an improvisation with TeZ from a performance in Rome. It features lots of cool electronic noises and patterns resulting in quite an exciting mix. Finally, “Mantra” is a wash of noise with sundry stuff underneath.
So to sum up – an excellent mix, and a springboard for further Praying For Oblivion exploration.