Killer double-header from Mike Shiflet and Pete Swanson on this deluxe, limited vinyl pressing - includes art booklet by Miranda Lichtenstein & Cameron Martin and 'Required Wreckers' tag on the sleeve* Killer double-header from Mike Shiflet and Pete Swanson, both building on the appeal of their recent solo albums for Type (Merciless and Man With Potential). Swanson's side is particularly engrossing and positively swollen with good ideas, arguably representing the culmination of the recent trend in his work: all stalled, staggered techno rhythm, sighing Detroit-ish string pads, submerged vocal loops, vapour trail arpeggios and - of course - the blizzard of all-consuming digital noise that has been Swanson-patented since the heyday of Yellow Swans. The closest cousin to 'College View' we can think of is MWP's 'Remote View' (and the titles do seem to suggest some kind of conscious relationship), but the synthesis of rough and smooth is here more nuanced and absolute than anything he's created before. Brilliant. Shiflet's side is rather more restrained, the perfect compliment to the ecstatic excesses of Swanson's - there are obvious comparisons to be made to the work of Oren Ambarchi and Fennesz, with heavily reverbed and mournful yet redemptive melodies bubbling beneath a waterline of tremulous drone, field recordings and tempered industrial noise. We could gas on indefinitely, but in the end it's pretty simple: together, Shiflet and Swanson's pieces constitute one of the most satisfying and absorbing split releases to have come out of the US underground in recent times. Don't sleep! (Boomkat)