Scattered Purgatory come from Taiwan and make music that lies somewhere between doom metal and ambient electronica.

To say this is unusual is an understatement. It’s beautifully strange – and it’s definitely the first time I’ve posted a band from Taiwan.

Scattered Purgatory – a great name that sounds like one of those baffling non-sequitur slogans you find on Japanese T-shirts – have been making their beautifully strange music for some time.

Formed in Taipei in 2013, their music occupies a liminal space between drone, ambient, psychedelic folk and ritualistic kosmiche experimentation.

Their new album is called Post Purgatory (a great title) and is released on the equally marvellously named record label Guruguru Brain (another good T-shirt slogan). You might call it doom metal with electronic undertones; or overtones.

They say the record, released after a three-year hiatus following the pandemic, captures a “feeling of loss and uncertainty”, along with a sense that time cam heal or destroy. Which is obviously true.

The record traverses Taiwanese, traditional Chinese, and English, reflecting the multilingual fabric of Taipei life, with lyrics reflecting on those universal themes of love, loss, and the human experience, interlaced (it says here) with influences of Hokkien and Mando pop and traces of trip-hop.

Their early work, including ‘Lost Ethnography of the Miscanthus Ocean’ (2014) and ‘God of Silver Grass’ (2016), blended dense instrumental drones, improvisational guitar, and ambient textures rooted in the heat, humidity, and urban pulse of Taiwan.

Over the years, the duo-turned-band has drawn on Krautrock, minimalist electronic music, and heavy drone traditions while remaining firmly grounded in Taiwanese geography and culture.

Post Purgatory was recorded half in their home and half at the studio where they composed their first album, expanding their palette with guest contributions from White Wu’s dynamic drumming to Minyen Hsieh’s tenor saxophone and dotzio’s sci-fi-infused vocals.