Piggy Black Cross
Brooklyn, New York, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2018
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Piggy Black Cross — Always Just Out of R.E.A.C.H. (Robotic Eclosion After Coming Hylozoic)
Self-released
Toby Driver has slowly but surely been injecting heavy synthwave vibes into his main project, Kayo Dot. Even so, I could not have seen this coming. Piggy Black Cross is a new collaboration between Driver and Bridget Bellavia that melds the saturated sci-fi atmospheres of synthwave with glitchy electronica, unorthodox compositions, and just a squirt of the sultriest goth. The beats are sparse but tricky, the moods continually shifting from numinous to dystopian, and the rarely repeated vocal phrasings conjure eros and loss and everything in between. The ultimate picture projected by this evocative journey is one of a future city, damp and neon, inhabited by sex-bots adrift on mourning for the death of the human species — their only source of patronage and affection. - Toilet ovHell
Always Just Out of R.E.A.C.H was nearly as good as getting another Kayo Dot release this year, and long term readers will recognize this as nearly the highest praise I can bestow on an album. This brilliant meeting of the minds of Bridget Bellavia and Toby Driver is all a long term fan could hope for. Continuing with the neo goth synth-infused sonic palette of Plastic House on Base of Sky, Driver and co stretch into some sinister yet slightly more straightforward territory with Piggy Black Cross. It’s more than a worthy listen, and has boldly held its own throughout the year as one of 2018’s top releases. That it hasn’t received more recognition is a shame. - Silent Motorist
#3--Piggy Black Cross - Always Just Out of R.E.A.C.H.
How on earth does Toby Driver do it? Few musicians have wowed me so consistently in so many different guises over the years. In the wake of such disparate behemoths as Kayo Dot, maudlin of the Well and Tartar Lamb comes Piggy Black Cross, a new collaboration with vocalist Bridget Bellavia. Driver describes it as “dark industrial IDM”, but this doesn’t even begin adequately to describe the serpentine majesty captured in these five songs. It’s true that the lack of overt avant-prog rock elements distinguishes it markedly from most of his other work, yet despite not being governed by Driver’s lucid dreaming lyrical impulse, both structurally and stylistically this is music as nomadic and free-wheeling as ever. Thus, the songs each unfold as unpredictable sequences of episodes – almost boxes within boxes – that seemingly progress ever inward through concentric compartmentalised kernels of stuff within their respective cores. Some of the songs are unquestionably dark – in ‘∂ea∂ 1101001011’s In-Cide’ there’s an abiding sense of walls closing in on all sides – though that doesn’t stop the music from occasionally both being and radiating light, Bellavia’s voice becoming breathy and intimate (heard most strikingly in the opening of ‘2 aƒЯa1D’). But that’s hardly the point of this album; what’s projected most on Always Just Out of R.E.A.C.H. is a pounding relentless energy articulated via a collection of inner engines with continually shifting gears. By far the most exhilarating and ecstatic songs i’ve heard all year. [Digital] - 5against4
Piggy Black Cross – Always Just Out of R.E.A.C.H. (experimental IDM, progressive darkwave)
After the workhorse mentality, Toby Driver has had this year, the prolific composer deserves a few months of respite after the close of this year. Fresh off of his contributions to Stern‘s Missive: Sister Ships and before he drops his excellent new solo album They Are the Shield, Driver has teamed up with vocalist Bridget Bellavia to craft an excellent exercise in morbidly beautiful darkwave. - Heavy Blog is Heavy
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Still working on that hot first release.
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