A drone whines in the distance; Horoscope jettisons a new 5-track LP titled Misogyny Stone. It has prescient timing: here we sit at the abyss of masculine power. Originally from Miami Florida but living in New York for over a decade, Rene J Nunez-Cabrera produces raw sonic compositions indebted to the visceral experience of performance. The new LP, his second for Wharf Cat Records, expands his palette of sound and exhibits the artist’s range in 5 succinct opi: from paranoid, buzzing headscapes, to meditative, industrial drumming. Washes and other gestures of contemporary noise abound, but the ultimate descriptor for Nunez’ penchant is mood. The title track contains Nunez’ version of a deep club jam, intertwining light and dark, low and high, with Kathryn Undorfer’s spoken word sitting right in the middle, sonically spotlighted. Narcissist Vague has a religious breadth despite its relatively short existence; while Azebache Necklace Bought to Protect My Daughter is a snare-pegged story of delivering a totem; New Piece (for Christian Mirande) starts with an organ’s lament, creepily. Nunez’ distorted, layered vocals then build into a desperate chorus of screams. Horoscope’s sound is embedded in the struggles of personhood. Through modular manipulations and his acute utility of pedals and tapes loops, Nunez’ de- and reconstructs the dynamics of gender relations: look into the misogyny stone; it is opaque and bleak.
