CEREMONY, SPICE, and Crisis Man frontman and published poet Ross J. Farrar opened his head fully to listeners last year with Going Strange, his debut solo effort under the R.J.F. moniker. It was a stark departure away from the abrasive hardcore and punk corner voids we normally hear him shout into, with the album leaning spiritually into the realms of gothic post-punk and experimental rock with a minimalist angle of perspective, his voice stirring as if it’s taking on the form of incense smoke dissipating through air. Still, we discovered there is a lot of noise going on inside the disquiet of it all. Farrar doesn’t consider himself as a traditionally-learned musician, and that seems to work to his benefit in not discerning the output to any one concrete thing beyond being the work of a beguiling creative psyche. This energy continues spilling out from his skull with its follow-up, GOING STRANGE. The timelapse since its predecessor has since laid paths of structure around his existential musings in defining words and sounds with more visible outlines in its psychedelic séance of basslines nudging doors, guitars flickering through hallways of the mind, primitive synthesizers going further into its recesses, and the meditative thump of a drum machine marking timestamps over his lyrical memory of faces, feelings, and places. These songs play out like tales personal and allegory, as if Farrar is sending warning signs to his future self by staring into past reflections. Some of them sound like he’s invented a slowcore version of Joy Division along the way, but for the most part, Strange Going rests outside of all physical space — another cranial detour in sensory and sound from one of the hardcore scene’s deepest wells.

Highlights: “Sonny John”, “Going Out”, “Danger In Freedom”

R.J.F.’s Strange Going is available now on Industry Standards.

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