Steelwound (20th Anniversary Edition)
by Ben Frost
David Giles
David Giles
A very subtle studio album when compared to Ben's other works.
Favorite track: You, Me And The End Of Everything.
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sleighride
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Dan Kletter
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Krzysztof Pietraszewski
Roaming in Limbo
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Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Purchasable with gift cardDownload available in 24-bit/48kHz.
$9 USD or more
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital AlbumMatte laminate and monochrome printed sleeve with embossing, plus insert card.
Includes unlimited streaming of Steelwound (20th Anniversary Edition) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.ships out within 7 days1 remainingPurchasable with gift card$12 USD or more
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Limited Edition Clear Smoke LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital AlbumClear smoke vinyl, matte laminate and monochrome printed cover
Includes unlimited streaming of Steelwound (20th Anniversary Edition) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.Sold Out
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Limited Edition LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital AlbumBlack vinyl, matte laminate and monochrome printed cover
Includes unlimited streaming of Steelwound (20th Anniversary Edition) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Download available in 24-bit/48kHz.Sold Out
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Swarm
03:59
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Steel Wound
09:13
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Last Exit To Brooklyn
06:51
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about
A note from Lawrence English
If I’m not mistaken, Ben Frost and I first talked about the ideas of what would become Steelwound sometime in mid 2002.
In the early 00s, Ben had been working on cut-up electronics, spilling over with floating rhythms, humming string samples and piano splices. It was a sound realised in part through the subversion of fruity loops and also owes a debt to Ableton Live which arrived in late 2001. His works to that point, gently saturated and bristling with a fizzy distortion at times, hinted at another sound world which would become his focused in the summer of 2002 and into 2003.
Locking himself away at Johanna’s Beach, a remote southern vantage along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, he was able to record for the first time without a sense of constraint. This opening up of the sound palette brought with it an entirely new harmonic language that had been hinted at, but not realised, on previous recordings. With a simple restriction of instrumentation, the guitar as the palette, Frost unlocked a certain verticality to his working methods that holds light to this day.
Steelwound is, by design, a singular record in Ben Frost’s discography. It’s a recording born of particular conditions, but also of particular interests. It was the first time Ben had set himself up with a situation where saturation, volume and density were all something that could be realised in a space and a time, not as a process of post-production. To have sound operating in space is a thing of true beauty and moreover it allows for a certain unpredictability that is central to new discoveries.
Working with a Fender Twin, often with the reverb dialled in at maximum, he found a language of shimmer and saturation, of compression and collision, that set the stage for a prolonged interest in how sound performs and is perceived at volume. It also is the first time that many of the tonal and melodic inflections that have come to be recognised as his compositional language are on display.
Steelwound, in my opinion, is a map to the future for Ben. It is a portal, a chance for new understandings to emerge and also to take hold and it’s these learnings that have guided Ben’s work in the subsequent years. Steelwound remains a pulsing beacon in an ocean of noise that has been flickering for two decades now.
If I’m not mistaken, Ben Frost and I first talked about the ideas of what would become Steelwound sometime in mid 2002.
In the early 00s, Ben had been working on cut-up electronics, spilling over with floating rhythms, humming string samples and piano splices. It was a sound realised in part through the subversion of fruity loops and also owes a debt to Ableton Live which arrived in late 2001. His works to that point, gently saturated and bristling with a fizzy distortion at times, hinted at another sound world which would become his focused in the summer of 2002 and into 2003.
Locking himself away at Johanna’s Beach, a remote southern vantage along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, he was able to record for the first time without a sense of constraint. This opening up of the sound palette brought with it an entirely new harmonic language that had been hinted at, but not realised, on previous recordings. With a simple restriction of instrumentation, the guitar as the palette, Frost unlocked a certain verticality to his working methods that holds light to this day.
Steelwound is, by design, a singular record in Ben Frost’s discography. It’s a recording born of particular conditions, but also of particular interests. It was the first time Ben had set himself up with a situation where saturation, volume and density were all something that could be realised in a space and a time, not as a process of post-production. To have sound operating in space is a thing of true beauty and moreover it allows for a certain unpredictability that is central to new discoveries.
Working with a Fender Twin, often with the reverb dialled in at maximum, he found a language of shimmer and saturation, of compression and collision, that set the stage for a prolonged interest in how sound performs and is perceived at volume. It also is the first time that many of the tonal and melodic inflections that have come to be recognised as his compositional language are on display.
Steelwound, in my opinion, is a map to the future for Ben. It is a portal, a chance for new understandings to emerge and also to take hold and it’s these learnings that have guided Ben’s work in the subsequent years. Steelwound remains a pulsing beacon in an ocean of noise that has been flickering for two decades now.
credits
released September 19, 2025
Written and produced by Ben Frost (control), except .018 written by Frost/Wentzki (control).
All guitars performed by Ben Frost.
Vocal .018 performed by Sarah-Jane Wentzki.
Field recordings .028 by Lawrence English.
Recorded at Johanna beach Australia in February 2003.
Ben Frost uses software by Ableton and Native Instruments.
Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space.
Continuity by Lawrence English.
Original design by Rinzen, this edition by Traianos Pakioufakis.
I would like to acknowledge 'frida kahlo' by Two Litre Dolby as the catalyst for .018. Steel wound is dedicated to the memory of Eileen Margaret McDonald.
Written and produced by Ben Frost (control), except .018 written by Frost/Wentzki (control).
All guitars performed by Ben Frost.
Vocal .018 performed by Sarah-Jane Wentzki.
Field recordings .028 by Lawrence English.
Recorded at Johanna beach Australia in February 2003.
Ben Frost uses software by Ableton and Native Instruments.
Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space.
Continuity by Lawrence English.
Original design by Rinzen, this edition by Traianos Pakioufakis.
I would like to acknowledge 'frida kahlo' by Two Litre Dolby as the catalyst for .018. Steel wound is dedicated to the memory of Eileen Margaret McDonald.
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about
Ben Frost
The music of Ben Frost is about contrast; influenced as much by Classical Minimalism as by Punk Rock and Metal, Frost's throbbing guitar-based textures emerge from nothing and slowly coalesce into huge, forbidding forms that often eschew conventional structures in favor of the inevitable unfoldings of vast mechanical systems. ... more
discography
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Sep 2025 -
May 2025 -
Mar 2024 -
Nov 2023
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