Gaffe of a Lifetime’s The Errors: A Kingdom of Loss is by far one of the most arresting debuts in 2015 thus far—a revelation difficult to internalize considering the album has been out since March.
How does a record like this fly universally under the radar? The Connecticut-based experimental producer uploaded the trap to IDM vignettes of “Savage” in March and the doom-drone dirge “Frothing Burden” in January. Both tracks heard retrospectively, are testaments to Gaffe of a Lifetime navigating en vogue signifiers, while the arrival of The Errors: A Kingdom of Loss is pure illumination. Gaffe of a Lifetime is simply operating on a higher plane.
“Plugged Forth, The Worst Has Yet To Come” arrives like Moroder’s “Tears” set to Tri Angle-ian dystopia, a staircase of organs climbing the tower to greet the piercing white noise in the sky. From the moniker to the listing of austere words on the Bandcamp page, Gaffe of a Lifetime’s message resonates bleak. Set “Plugged Forth…” to six minutes of clips of TV news reports, worldwide protests met with militarized police forces, and the paranoia aligns in unflinching parallels. With the newsfeed sufficiently scrolled, and understood that it is infinite, Gaffe of a Lifetime delves into the nuance of despondent dance-yourself clean attempts on “Basement Chic” and “21st Century Collapse” aims to uplift through airy modulations set to ethereal scales. There is conflict inherent in each exploration, Gaffe of a Lifetime is never able to simply brush the dirt off his shoulder, but devotes a concern with maintaining the dirt’s placement in a balancing act on the verge of disrupt.
It culminates in “… And This Is Where You Have Died” and there has never been a more fitting thought chosen to express a composition of sound.
