Reigning Cement by Jesse Draxler
From the Press Release, September 4, 2020:
In the pandemic summer of 2020, Draxler will unveil Reigning Cement, an audio-visual project pairing a 100-page book of the artist’s location-specific photography and collage work with a collection of music created by over 20 musicians handpicked by Draxler himself. It will be released via Federal Prisoner, the label created by Draxler and Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan) and the list of participating artists is a veritable dream team of dark underground music.
The concept behind the audio portion of Reigning Cement was inspired by an experiment that Draxler participated in a few years ago, in which a group of collage artists were each given the exact same packet of visual assets with which to create a piece. Similarly, Draxler provided each musician on Reigning Cement with the same 34 sonic elements—all recorded in the noisy industrial environment just outside his studio on the edge of Los Angeles.
“I grew up in rural Wisconsin, so when I moved here I noticed all the textures and noises that are such a big part of this environment—the construction sounds, garbage trucks, jackhammers, alarms,” Draxler offers. “Stuff that you would just consider noise. It’s so densely industrial over here that it became something that grated on my nerves but at the same time was super inspiring.” Each musician on Reigning Cement was confined to creating a song from these elements, with the only additional allowance being the inclusion of vocals if they so desired. And yet the wide variety of results is self-evident upon the very first listen. “The music ranges from polished experimental pop to sheer noise,” Draxler says. “That’s what I wanted, and I think that’s the coolest thing about it."
Like the audio elements, all the images included in Reigning Cement are products of Draxler’s immediate industrial environment. “The photographic images are all from my neighborhood,” he confirms. “That’s very much a part of the concept." The overall effect is one of urban chaos and decay, a theme that continues in the videos Draxler has created for some of the tracks, like Dylan Walker’s “Time reign cemenT” and Vowws’ “Them.” “It definitely has that element of taking something not generally considered beautiful and making something beautiful out of it,” Draxler says. “That’s a concept I use a lot in my work.”
Tracklist
Credits
audio assets by Jesse Draxler
compositions & vocals: each respective artist
mastered by Alan Douches
