Review Summary: "How much has really changed?"
Just when you thought you had enough Sensory Deprivation to last you a year – a staggering eight releases in less than a whole year, this little post-hardcore, fugazi-idolizing one-man band comes along and surprises you with his ninth release of 2015. The project of Brendan Nixon, Sensory Deprivation started off moreso as a tribute to his rock idols, progressing with every single release, most notably on May’s
Unsound and the newest release in the Sensory Deprivation canon,
Inrepertus. Whereas
Unsound was a tape loop heavy, intricately-structured album in the vein of post-hardcore and math-rock,
Inrepertus is a stark contrast to any of Nixon’s other recordings, yet a logical conclusion to his original intentions from the very start with
Godspeed. Accompanying Nixon as guest vocalist is Jacob Scheppler, providing Nixon’s hazy rhythm-oriented music with the intense, atmospheric screams that are perfectly fitting for the music being played throughout the album. A concise and trim thirty minutes,
Inrepertus wastes no time in getting to the point of Nixon’s true intentions by using his influences (the reverberated harmonies of Have a Nice Life, the carefully-crafted compositional work of Unwound, the intensity of Swans, and so on) to create what is quite considerably not only an amazingly consistent record, but the logical conclusion to the ideas Nixon had in mind just a year before.
"For some this piece may not be serious, but for others it could be the world."