Gulaggh - "Vorkuta" (2013) [Crucial Blast]

Technically, Vorkuta was Gulaggh's first album after their shift from the Stalaggh project in 2009. I'm sure, however, that I'm far from the only person who missed out on the mad din while the album promptly sold out from New Era Productions. Crucial Blast's new re-release is simple and classy: only silver ink on a solid black digipack.

There's not nearly so much distortion here as there was back in the Stalaggh days, but this is still the sort of psychotic thing that makes the cat leave the room. Instead of the noise, the Dutch asylum artists have moved their chaos of screaming (which they credit to recordings from patients in a mental hospital, though that's of course unverifiable and, oddly, the "sane" are more likely to scream in chorus for extended periods) to the context of untutored and chaotic use of an assortment of traditional European "orchestral" instruments. Violins croak and squeak with the characteristic bounces and open arpeggios of a novice attempting to divulge the inner workings of madness, a bass drum calls out a funeral tone, and muddied brass and winds lurch along in a mad parody of a march.

Gulaggh really hit the nail on the head here with the heavy inclusion of higher voices screaming. "Vorkuta" is definitely the most solid instance of "composition based on a flowing structure around the sampled speech of a relentless foreign tongue, a chorus of the damned, and naive improvisation on an assortment of traditional instruments" I've yet heard. Valuable enough just because this album is the only instance of its genre.

Antique Soviet torture doom. Our ethically-challenged public servants really need to step up their aural torture game from crappy rock music.

-V.

SONG PREMIERE: Stream Kinit Her's Expansive "Day And Night Together"

Wisconsin avant-neofolk duo Kinit Her as quickly ascended the ranks of my internal "favorite bands" list. After a period of soul-searching and various genre experimenting which resulted in their various early demos, particularly Glyms or Beame of Radicall Truthes and Menial as Archivists, the artistic union between electronic sound manipulator/Brave Mysteries labelhead Nathaniel Ritter and multi-instrumentalist/modern composer Troy Schafer truly found themselves with Small Doses release Gratitudes and haven't looked back since. Reverent to both ancient and modern composition styles, Kinit Her's almost neo-medieval sound fully manifested itself with last year's Storm of Radiance, a unique amalgamation of Dowland-inspired string work, mantra-esque voice drones, and intricate electronic meditations which actually ended up as my absolute favorite release of last year. Hot on the heels of Storm came The Cavern Stanzas, which showed this duo flexing their "new music muscle," rife with bizarre discordance and rich psychedelia; another face to the ever-changing, quality-driven beast that is Kinit Her.

Never ones to slow down, a new year brings even more Kinit Her material, manifesting in the soon-to-be-released Avant! Records LP The Poet & The Blue Flower. Focusing more on the song-oriented material of old, The Poet is a much more "flowing" affair in comparison to Schafer and Ritter's most recent efforts, pulling back from their Stockhausen and Crumb-inspired modern discordance in favor of beautiful, cascading violin work and warm ambiance.



Appearing later in the album, "Day and Night Together" is a shining example of this newly regained sense of concordance. A beautiful blend of Schafer and Ritter's acoustic and electronic interplay, pitted against their now signature, unique vocal approach, "Day and Night Together" is almost a departure from Kinit Her's usual rhythmic, churning neofolk for something resembling a Projekt Records darkwave release. Of course, in the context of the album itself, "Day and Night Together"'s darkwave qualities are merely a brief detour, but we should always expect the unexpected from Kinit Her. Pure brilliance.

The Poet & The Blue Flower will be available from the excellent post-punk/neofolk/darkwave/industrial powerhouse Avant! Records on June 21st.

-Jon

Servile Sect - "Glowing" (2013) [King of the Monsters Records] (FULL EP STREAM)

Servile Sect really is something else. A true entity from black metal's furthest left field, the duo of Luke Krnkr (Sadness Saturn, ITHI, Cvbe ov Falsehood) and Nhate Clmnt (Ash Borer, Cerebrate, Golden Raven) project themselves into the deepest, blackest recesses of space, mutating into a mash of alien sound collage, eerie, ethereal ambiance, and, of course, boundary-pushing black metal. With their initial roots burrowed deep in cosmic oddity, Servile Sect has only become more reckless and experimental with time, garnering near-universal praise and the support of musical juggernauts the likes of R. Loren and Sonic Youth mainman Thurston Moore, who released the CD edition of Realms of the Queen on his Ecstatic Peace! imprint.   Though based in hazy, droning black metal, Servile Sect has been known to incorporate elements of krautrock, noise, Stockhausen-inspired modern classical music, and even, dare I say it, hip-hop into the fold, becoming more unique and formless as the years (and miles between the two members, who have since moved to opposite sides of the country) increase.

With Glowing, Servile Sect's latest 10" EP, we see this duo's penchant for abstraction increase exponentially. A three-track excursion lasting a mere twenty-three minutes, Glowing shows Krnkr and Clmnt's compositions at their most mature and polarizing, no doubt to raise eyebrows and cause many an argument on various silly internet forums. Manifesting itself as a sort of slow metamorphosis, Glowing is an exercise in balance, with Krnkr and Clmnt shifting weight equally between their more alien, experimental side, and, of course, their black metal roots. Opener "Frenzy of Cubensis" shows Servile Sect at their most abstract and primal, a sort of blackened Throbbing Gristle jam, complete with a minimal industrial beat, odd, sequenced loops, and a distant black metal troll rasp. "Evoke" brings black metal guitar into the fold, erupting over a sampled tribal drum loop, again a vestige of their Throbbing Gristle influence, before fading into a bizarre bout of ambient noise. Closer "Blasting Beyond Vortex" shows Servile Sect going full-tilt, a near-thirteen-minute harsh black metal affair. Based around a consistent, droning riff, this might be black metal in the style of the greats like Paysage d'Hiver, Darkspace, and Vinterriket, this reviewer almost feels that Servile Sect is attempting to reverse their usual "black metal by way of noise" formula with a static "noise by way of black metal" track, almost mirroring the like-minded Wold's evolution (though much, much better).



What really sets this EP apart from other "space-themed black metal" bands is that it isn't based in the boring, bleak static which plagues the genre. No, there's something oddly explosive about this release, as it is with the entirety of Servile Sect's catalog. Krnkr and Clmnt's nebular approach glows at its brightest with this aptly-named release, which is only further accentuated by Mike Bjella's (GOG/Sounds of Battle and Souvenir Collecting) beautiful artwork. Expect a pre-order link via King of the Monsters Records within the next few days. Trust me, you want this one.

EDIT: HERE'S THE PREORDER LINK. GO NUTS.

-Jon