I discovered Montreal, Canada duo Security about two weeks ago through a friend with good taste, and as soon as the striking visual aesthetic of Arid Land's cover caught my eye, I knew with complete certainty that this was going to be outstanding. Creating an experimental form of dark and depressing industrialized post-punk, the material centers largely around chilling atmospheres of stripped down and rhythmically textured bass-centric hypnotism with droning vocal melodies. Every aspect of their output is absolutely fuckin' awesome, to put it bluntly. While they don't really remind me of much, I do think that such sounds should appeal to fans of Chelsea Wolfe and the like—proving that Security should have gone much farther, because...
It was with crushing disappointment that within about five minutes of first hearing the band, I learned that they had broken up a few weeks ago, having released but a mere five songs in total—which is two more than the duo's previous short-lived outfit, Dernier Sex, at least. (Check that shit out, too, 'cause "White Ice" is utterly incredible!)
Thankfully, Arid Land does possess a physical footprint. You can score the EP on cassette (or name your price download) from the band, or on 12" from Hungry Eye Records. The label is also offering a package deal of the 12" plus the Dernier Sex 7"—both of which are limited to around 300 copies—so that's what I'd recommend. (I'm hoping to see my copies in the mail later this week!)
Both Security and Dernier Sex were associated with the Menace Collective, which appears to have issued quite a bit of interesting music at least through the tail end of 2017. I'm not sure of the collective's current status, but I certainly hope that these musicians continue in one form or another...
