The Barn is an album that’s on the verge of being completely unlistenable but stands as a testament to incredible noise-art. The record flutters with imprints of conventional sounds, noise-rock/hardcore traditions and loosely structured, free-form riffing interspersed by saxophone use that seems indescribably in place and controlled in a sea of otherwise cacophonic noise.
Tracks like ‘Learnt Young’ show this through rapid splits from rolling bass-driven demi-rock segments into grindier punk riffs in no time at all. The album increases and writhes in intensity before arriving at titular track, ‘The Barn’, which deceives with a comparably quiet opening before dissolving into an unadulterated sprawl of riff-driven, ear-splitting noise and howls.
While the album can be a difficult pill to swallow for the uninitiated, it’s nigh-impossible to equate The Barn with any listening experience you’ve had before. The misery, the expressionism, the cacophony and the perverted sense of structure that the band calls a finished product is indicative of some form of mad genius. It’s something that, while being utterly in pieces, is still identifiable as a finished product.
At no point can you quip “this would be better if…’ It’s perfect in its raw husk of a form, in its naked, gnashing-toothed imperfections. There will never be a band who push the envelope of heavy music or even understand how to do it half as well as Idylls do it, granting The Barn undeniable merit.
