Last year, Jo Rad Silver released his debut solo EP Superhero Elevator Techno. Silver’s work with Assemble Sound, the Detroit Sound Conservancy, his “Technically, Yeah” monthly with Eddie Logix, and more has made him a familiar presence in Detroit’s local music scene, and his creative work blends from the ambient to the abrasive, with various projects being connected by visceral explorations of the cathartic nature of rhythm, layered with melody and texture.

Yesterday, Silver returned with his debut full-length Protography, described as “cascading neon-cryptography… Exciting and meditative… a fuzzy storm of tonal timbres and roiling rhythms…snapshots of collapsed ecstasy and unexplored pastfutures.”

Protography exists as a work of both musical and visual expression. Silver came upon the term “Industrial Drum Machine Folk” to describe the project, a genre that is evidence of the nature of a sound that defies simple characterization. That being said, all of those elements are there; You can feel the steadfast commitment to grinding against the limits and great potential of hardware, the rhythmic synthesis and dance sensibilities, but also the moaning and grooving of guitar parts that are not what you might expect but somehow make a lot of sense within the structure of each song.

While many musicians with a range of tastes become pools of influence, their sound a jungle juice of what they listen to that manifests only faint hints of things you might recognize, Protography might be more like a bucket of multi-flavored ice cubes. Each cube itself possesses the integrity of it’s own nature, so what is new is instead the combination and structuring of those individual pieces, with a little melting on the side that creates just enough stylistic ambiguity to make the boundaries less harsh and therefore, more interesting.

Jo Rad Silver will perform Protography in its entirety tonight at his home field Donovan’s Pub, with MK and Sarah spinning records as Mary-Kate & Trashley to provide “proper weirdo tunes before, after and everywhere in between.” Check out the full description and details on the Facebook Event here, and join Jo Rad Silver for a raw, live, and ephemeral version of a project years in the making.

Photos by GOOD-PALS, album art by JRS.

The post ALBUM RELEASE: Jo Rad Silver’s Debut Full-Length “Protography” Live at Donovan’s Pub appeared first on PLAYGROUND DETROIT.