Mia Zabelka and IcosTech here with the second instalment of their Aftershock project, simply called Aftershock Vol. 2 (SUBCONTINENTAL RECORDS SCX061) – we heard the first CD in 2021. IcosTech is N Arun Chandhran from Bangalore, playing guitars, bass, djembe, and also doing the mix of the album – very good to hear this Indian-European partnership continue, although I stop short of calling it an “unholy dual avatar” (from the press notes). The duo are now joined by the cellist Henrik Meierkord from Gothenburg, and on three tracks the American trumpet player Joshua Trinidad reappears as a guest.
For those who enjoy the spirited, fiery violin work of Austrian Zabelka (and I’m one of them), this probably isn’t really the album for you; it’s quite some way from electro-acoustic improvisation, Zabelka is by no means the star or the soloist, and it’s mostly long tracks of lush, layered, ambient drone produced by several types of instruments, rendered into long-form stratified shapes by the mixing process. We can’t make out her violin, but neither can we make out cello, guitar or trumpet in this swirling array. As far as I can tell most of the original instruments are also heavily processed and fed through effects, so rarely does a natural unblended sound ever reach our ears. Instead, be prepared for wistful and contemplative vistas which ponder the ever-changing streams and tributaries of the human condition, sometimes expressed through abstract titles such as ‘Derived Intentions’ or ‘Introspective Initiations’.
The band – if in fact they ever met together in a recording studio, which is not clear – manage to get agitated and noisy in a couple of places, such as the light-industrial hammerbeats on ‘Tech 2417’ or the heavy-metal nightmare of ‘Predatory Influx’, but the Aftershock team seem happiest concocting imaginary soundtracks to assorted cyber-future scenarios, few of which have happy endings; while not explicitly referenced, one could plausibly apply topical concerns about crypto currency, cybercrime, and Artificial Intelligence to these overloaded, dense tracks. IcosTech certainly has a signature style, but he has yet to work out how to make sounds work effectively for him; maybe he could learn something about economy and simplicity from a King Tubby dub or a Rudy Van Gelder production. The cover image is by Juul Krajier, a Dutch visual artist, arriving with her update on the Medusa myth; it hints at a sense of danger that we can certainly locate in these troubling grooves, but maybe it also embodies something about feminism and an unknowable human mystery, concepts which don’t immediately surface in the world-weary and claustrophobic sound world of Aftershock. From 28 November 2022.