In contrast to some of the more severe releases on Thanatosis Produktion, the record Monolog (THT20) by Tomas Hallonsten is not only approachable, it’s downright melodic and tuneful. This fellow from Stockholm turns out to be a gifted instrumentalist and he plays everything on the record; I think what we hear is mostly synths and drum machines, although apparently the project began life as a more regular instrumental album with piano, guitar, bass and drums (and drew some ideas from one Mark Hollis, apparently). At some level, Hallonsten (or perhaps the press agents at the label) wants to align his music with that of Alice Coltrane, and he even does a cover version of ‘Earth’ from The Elements (1974) written by Joe Henderson. I’d hesitate to say Monolog contains anything as powerful as Coltrane’s pioneering work, but even so you can pick up traces of ethnic strains and echoes of African music in among the user-friendly rhythms and sweetly-tuned synths. If anything, Jon Hassell might be a truer precedent. This one is growing on me now; early spins had me convinced it was a lightweight fluffer aiming at a species of post-modern easy listening, but boy was I wrong; the truth turns out to something much more surprising and diverse. Whatever he’s doing with his keys, Tomas Hallonsten makes it sound effortless, but just because he isn’t aiming at Herbie Hancock trickiness or Joe Zawinul razzle-dazzle doesn’t betoken lack of musical talent. And anyone who can make a bid to reclaim the music of Klaus Wunderlich outside of the context of knowing irony and deliberate cheesiness deserves a citation from the mayor of Chemnitz. The last track ‘Vals Antifon’ is a real winner – it’s Sun Ra with his ship set on cruise control, while Cerrone conducts a lounge-pop Martin Rev tribute act as the rhythm section. In other words, how Disco 3000 should have sounded. Another Alex Zethson presentation. (12/12/2022)
The record by This Immortal Coil features a large number of singers and musicians, all doing cover versions of Coil songs and tunes on The World Ended A Long Time Ago (ICI D’AILLEURS IDA152). I think it’s mostly directed by Stéphane Grégoire, but Massimo Pupillo from Zü had a large hand in realising the recordings, as did David Chalmin. On it you can hear members of Ulver, Nadja, Zero and various soloists, and although this is the current incarnation of the band, the Coil “supergroup” concept has been around since 2009; indeed the press notes give us a potted history of various collaborative tribute recordings from that date, a story punctuated by the deaths of John Balance and Peter Christopherson. I’m not the world’s greatest Coil fan, but I sense Stéphane Grégoire is smitten by them; he also did the cover design and typography which is clearly intended to align itself with the rest of Coil’s vast discography. Unfortunately, this record reinforces my suspicion that underneath all their quasi-supernatural pagan posturing, Coil were a band who dealt in pure kitsch. All I can hear here is melodrama, introspective gloom, and suffocating self-importance; few of the promised thrills of transgression or danger on which so many Coil acolytes thrive. Only 10 tracks on this promo CD, but for diehard fans there’s a 5 LP / 3 CD set available including albums The Dark Age of Love and Twisted by Love. (12/12/2022)