GOLD DIME - Nerves

The split didn't damage the friendship between the two women, so much so that Ambro's return under the new moniker of Gold Dime sees Register as a trusted ally behind the mixing desk. With her new project, the drummer-vocalist has decided to carry forward what she built with Talk Normal, dialing down the aggression of the material while ramping up its dark, industrial approach. Alongside an intense run of live shows as a trio (with bassist-guitarist Ian Douglas-Moore and percussionist Alyse Lamb), Ambro has found the way to release the first album under the Gold Dime name.

The record is titled "Nerves", and it's precisely nerve endings that form the skeleton of eight intimate, aggressive tracks that move in a dark way, with drumming that always seems on the verge of exploding, electronic intrusions and whip-crack guitar lines that know exactly how to hurt, perpetually suspended on a razor's edge. Despite running over eight minutes, it's the single (!) "Easy" that stands as the flagship of a sound that seems accessible on the surface but reveals itself, deep down, as thoroughly menacing in its obsessive bass rhythm, the leader's art rock vocalizations, and the guitar slashes that undermine its structure from the foundations up.

The choral momentum and the saxophone of guest Kate Mohanty lead us directly into the record's only cover, "All We Have To Be Thankful For", which closed "The Sitting Room" in 1982, the debut album by electronic artist, poet and spoken word master Anne Clark. The track is replicated in an even darker fashion (if that's possible), before being buried under an avalanche of industrial debris. A tribal, small-town-band gait complete with saxophone ushers us into the world of "4 Hours", a track that manages to melt into a compelling chorus while the insistent hits on the floor tom turn into the ticking of a clock that pitilessly marks the passing of time.

Ambro cuts loose on the hi-hat on the following "Shut Up", with the bass acting as counterpoint to vocalizations that often recall the expressive force of Laurie Anderson. Electronic interventions and disturbances arrive to try to tear everything apart, succeeding in the pitch-black pagan litany of "Quota". And while the darkwave insistence still peeks through in the splendid "Disinterested", at times even melodic, with Ambro's voice growing ever more powerful and evocative, the brief "Hindsight" scrambles everything again with three minutes of poignant piano notes smudged by electronic suspensions and a filtered voice that seems to come from a parallel world.

"Rock" closes the circle, where the opening melody shouldn't fool you — quite the opposite, better to find safe shelter from the industrial shrapnel that will keep coming, together with the subversive charge of an artist who is well aware of the versatility of her voice and her skill at building structures that perfectly balance harshness and melody. In the opening track, Andrya Ambro talks about how choosing the harder path can be as demanding as it is exhilarating a challenge.

After repeated listens to "Nerves", there's no longer any doubt about the talent of an artist who passes this demanding test with flying colors, managing to craft a sound that's consistently taut and dense, where even the dissonances have their precise place. Without a doubt, one of the most interesting albums released in 2017.