THE WOLFHOUNDS’ Andy Golding, one of the most potent wielders (welders?) of a guitar in operation in these tarnished isles today, is releasing only his second solo album under his anagrammatic Dragon Welding moniker in May, in which he sets sail into the possibilities of instrumental guitar. It’s gonna be an excellent journey, that album, Lights Behind The Eyes; trust us, we’ve been living inside it a good while now.
You hopefully caught our premiere of the title track back last month, the spun-sugar fragility of which you oughta go lose yourself in here if you didn’t; and today Andy flips the coin over and properly breathes fire into his composition, with the furnace heat of “Scorched Sea”.
“Scorched Sea” steps back towards Andy’s parent band by way of some Throbbing Gristle or Cabaret Voltaire, great slabs of thrum and grind with an addled metronomy the bed for riffs like hot, extruding wire in the great steel mills.
It’s industrial in a thrilling and inventive way, and not in a wears an ankle-length leather coat and has a The Matrix poster way: it’s the sound of riverside industry brought right inside your head and made song. And it burrows deeper as arcane semi-percussion booms and that riff howls and crackles like a downed high-voltage cable writhing at your feet.
Andy’s on record as saying: “I wanted to make music that you can relax to while keeping your guard up. Like Neil Young waltzing with Laurie Anderson at the Chigley six o’clock whistle while The Durutti Column watches over Brian Eno as he turns the handle on the fairground organ. I wanted it to surprise me.”
Look out for our review of the album on the morning of May 2nd.
“Scorched Sea” is out today on all digital platforms.
Dragon Welding’s Lights Behind The Eyes will be released by Dimple Discs digitally, on CD and on very strictly limited vinyl run of 350 on May 7th; pre-orders are now open for business, yessir, over at Bandcamp.
Follow Dragon Welding on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and at his YouTube channel.
