Khanate: Clean Hands Go Foul (gold) LP

Khanate are Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))), Burning Witch, Thorr's Hammer), James Plotkin and Alan Dubin (OLD), and Tim Wyskida (Blind Idiot God, Manbyrd). "Clean Hands Go Foul" (2009) generously offers more of everything: voluminous drones, clashing dissonance, mysterious subharmonic swells, escalating terror, and environments drenched in heavy anticipatory dread. The final hour of the band's first decade sees Khanate, as always, making "music that, even in the realm of extreme music, is dark and distorted" (Pitchfork). "Clean Hands Go Foul" would be followed by the ultimate minimalism, as the Khanate entity sat shrouded in silence until the release of 2023's "To Be Cruel".