Morgan Garrett makes contemporary Appalachian poetry from unpredictable noise

Morgan Garrett is a homegrown American freak who makes music for car wrecks. The Philadelphia-based artist often performs his slapdash variety of electronic music while wrestling an acoustic guitar. Where other artists become one with their instrument, Garrett plays his as if it’s something he can’t quite control—an object attempting to slip from his fingers or lash at his face. He performs as though possessed, creating sound less through traditional chord or song structures and more through noises via gestures.

Across five full-lengths, Garrett has created an impressive body of noise, which he’s classified as “no metal” and “noise country.” His latest release, last year’s Purity (Orange Milk), reflects on discovering the dead body of his neighbor and what that experience forced him to confront about his own suicidal ideation. Opener “Alive” starts with Garrett imploring “I want to be kept alive by something” in a whisper that recalls Korn’s Jonathan Davis. He’s accompanied by a creeping, astructural nu-metal track that’s sometimes restrained in delightfully uncomfortable ways—the audio equivalent of a hollow metal vessel holding a tangle of sparking wires, with no coherent organization in its pockets of emptiness or its parts that crackle. The rest of the album is exactly as pained and haunting as you’d expect given its inspiration, and it delivers exciting, profound atmospheric twists and turns. With his sequencer and guitar, Garrett is a poet of contemporary Appalachia.

Morgan Garrett YHWH Nail Gun headline. Sun 5/4, 8 PM, Sleeping Village, 3734 W. Belmont, $20, 21+