On the 2021 album Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Guide to the Universe, furious Vancouver avant-metal duo New Age Doom collaborated with the late dub legend, powerhouse jazz players, and members of Canadian indie-rock bands. On There Is No End they continue this approach, welcoming Norwegian vocalist Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser (aka Tuvaband) into the fold, with accompaniment from David Bowie’s bassist Tim Lefebvre, Deftones beatmaker CrookOne, and Sloan’s keyboardist Gregory Macdonald. This game of shifting musical chairs results in a truly genre-agnostic sound, surrounding Tuvaband’s dreamy pop vocals with grooving polyrhythms, shimmering woodwinds, and droning metal riffs. The album’s expansive songs pick up steam as they explode into full-blast conclusions, where their many individual elements get lost in formless firepits of sound. “Intraterrestrial” begins with a minimalist drum pulse before sprawling into shimmering flute and guitar riffs reminiscent of desert blues. The squelching electronics of “Kurgan Dwellers” sound like dub from an aquatic kingdom below Jamaica, as the beat moves in slow motion under layers of lysergic effects. “Fearless Talisman” is lifted by a harmonic lattice of Tortoise-style post-rock, as dual drummers Eric J. Breitenbach and Benedicte Pierleoni pound their kits into oblivion. “I’m afraid of nothing,” Tuvaband chants in a dazed deadpan, sounding like she’s caught under a spell.
There Is No End is bookended by two lengthy songs. In the opener, “In the Beginning,” guitar lines coil like a snake being charmed, while the two drum sets dance around each other and horns wail in the distant background. Tuvaband’s vocals are sparse, but she provides the album’s Zen koan: “In the beginning, I’m just beginning / In the end, there is no end.” By the time they reach the concluding title track, her angelic intonations finally get the spotlight, as Tuvaband’s vocal melody is closely traced by the instruments. Guitar riffs drift in slow motion, like Slint treading water in an abandoned quarry, as spacy horns are layered over dusty trip-hop beats. At the height of their intensity, New Age Doom blaze like a stoner metal band covering the Sun Ra Arkestra, yet the album retains a dubby sense of space, as if Lee “Scratch” Perry still haunts their studio sessions.
