Forgotten Bottom – ‘Hostile Architecture’ CS
Forgotten Bottom is a Viola and Bouzouki instrumental drone duo. Named after an often overlooked Philadelphia neighborhood by born and raised musician Myles Donovan (Disemballerina, A Stick And A Stone, Ominous Cloud Ensemble) and New Jersey transplant Eric Bandel (Nymph, Victory and Good Hunting), the two piece group crossbreeds amplified walls of both harmony and dissonance with found echoing subway tunnel noises and simultaneous foot drum driven percussion. “Hostile Architecture”, their cassette debut on the label Black Horizons, is a noisy soundtrack inspired by a home city’s heartbreaking gentrification, development,present opiod crisis and individual band members’ work in the shelter system. The album gets it’s title from an urban design term used to discourage homeless individuals from sleeping in public places and unwelcome birds from nesting. It’s cover is a dead Cardinal that Donovan saw fly into an abandoned building, which he then retrieved off the ground and hand stuck into a color copier. Hostile Architecture was mastered by Mell Dettmer (Earth, Sunn O))) and recorded in a warehouse fire escape by Steve Roche (Saetia). All song names are quotes from people living in Philadelphia.