Nels Cline sure gets around. One of the most innovative and bruising guitarists of the last twenty years, he has lent his improv chops to free jazz, noise, straight on rock and, curiously, to Wilco.
Here he collaborates with Zach Hill on four menacing noisy tracks, each one building slowly out of an ambient swamp, reaching shore at full abrasive blast. Remixed in one day, and recorded on the night of the 2004 Election (as grim a night ripe for noise as any!) Damsel is angry, but the controlled, build-to-shred approach is what gives tracks like ?Enduring Freedom? and ?Deathwatch on the American Empire? their full power. Cline of course is a monster, and Hill?s drumming more than keeps up. Hella?s bassist Jonathan Hischke adds the right, tight, and minimal bottom. Born of rage and frustration, this one-off collaboration stands on its own not only musically, but as a comment on the times. 9/10 -- Mike Wood (11 December, 2006)