By pushing the boundaries of what a bow and a pair of drumsticks can deliver, the Montreal-based viola and drums duo Hangedup mesmerized audiences for years. The band steadily expanded its strategies and sonics over its 5-year history and was at the peak of its powers with Clatter For Control, the third and final full-length. Gen’s bi-amplified viola rig, linked to a live audio looper, creates a vortex of jigs, reels and air-raid drones, pummeled along by some of the heaviest polyrhythmic skinbeating we’ve ever heard. An unbelievably beautiful racket that finds the band utterly on fire, swooping and slamming around with varying degrees of controlled chaos. Both noisier and more melodic than anything they had yet put to tape, Hangedup raised their compositional and improvisational bars on Clatter For Control. Eric and Gen played as if sharing the same cortex and spine.

“Klang Klang”, “Go Let’s Go” and “Junk The Clatter” are the structured, syncopated anchors for an album that ventures deep into noise and improv territory, drenched in beautiful distortions and saturations, the each player listening and responding to the other. “Fuck This Place” adds electric bass by Harris Newman (solo, Hrsta, Sackville) and also marked Hangedup’s first use of vocals, with Gen screaming through her viola pick-up as the song growls through crackling punches. Quieter textural explorations like “A Different Kind Of Function” offer brief respite from the onslaught.