Hauntology by Alexander W Sims

Hauntology is a philosophical concept that describes how the past and future haunt the present and was first discussed by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his book Specters of Marx.

2024 saw a great change for me. I spent a lot of time unraveling myself. I was suffering from burn out and chronic pain. I quit my job and going to the gym. I felt haunted by what life had on offer. I needed to experience nothingness, to get away from this existential crisis I was having. These recordings are a document of this time.

Whilst there are some other pieces recorded during this time, these three (technically four) pieces I feel are the best works and capture the overall mood of the period.

The production on Hauntology steps away from previous works that heavily relied on re-amping and post-production techniques. I wanted to make a raw sounding album, one that sounds like a guitar playing full passages through pedals and (mic’d up) amps and letting the sound reverberate and feedback organically in the room. It also sees the upgrade and inclusion of some new hardware such as keyboards and a drum machine.

Beauty Queen: I had the bass line circling around my head for years and never quite knew the tempo, notes or what to do with it. This is the only track to have re-amped guitars. Used as a guide for how the track would progress. I left all three processed tracks in as they sounded great and made the track flow. Each time there is a chord change, a set of slightly more distorted guitars are introduced, adding to the anticipation of the fury unleashed in the middle of the track.

Salute the Sun: Like Beauty Queen, the idea for Salute the Sun has been in my mind for years. I had been listening to Duster’s album Together on repeat, the slow fuzzy nature of it inspired the tempo and cold uneasiness of the track.

Last Stand: Split it into two parts (Last Stand Prelude and Last Stand) to eliminate the bloated and ego feelings. This one surfaced during a drop D jam/noise session. Initial tracks and the outline only took two days to record. I had to stop during recording overdubs as I had an abrasion on my thumb from hitting the strings so hard.

Recorded February - December 2024

Experimental, drone, ambient & techno.

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