RANDALL DUNN

Beloved fIgUREIghT 8/10

Heavy-duty producer makes own slab of doom with friends like Zola Jesus

Seeing as Randall Dunn produced and engineered some of the heaviest, doomiest albums ever recorded – including many by Earth and Sunn O))), whose Stephen O’Malley designed Beloved’s sleeve – the first album under his name was bound to haul some serious tonnage. Yet for all the menace exuded by slow-moving instrumentals like “Lava Rock And Amber”, Dunn’s debut deviates from expectations in many respects. Spellbinding collaborations with Algiers singer Frank Fisher and Zola Jesus compel Dunn to pivot away from doomy, droney abstractions towards more song-based forms, thereby evoking Berlinera Bowie and Eno, or Sunn O)))’s own match-up with Scott Walker.