Time for another Zoharum batch from 10 January 2023.
Bartosz Jakubicki and Artur Blaszczyk are the Polish duo who record as synta[xe]rror, giving themselves a band name with unpronounceable square brackets and the suggestion of a computer program going wrong (they would have felt at home on compilations like Or Some Computer Music Issue 1, but that was in 1999). On their element [OFF] crime (ZOHAR 264-2) they’re explicitly adding lots more percussion to their work and aiming for a mechanised, “metal” effect as part of their take on the IDM genre. Although CD is structured as four separate “elements”, it plays as a non-stop party of 41:10, building in intensity and aggression as it proceeds. Actually this is a lot more varied and enjoyable than [DOT], their previous item for this label, which we heard in 2021 and which left an abiding impression of too much computer programming in pursuit of its dystopian future vision. Conversely, today’s “crime” special is an abundance of hammering beats, broken and distorted electric groinks, loops and repeats, and judicious use of voice samples. No matter what I say I seem to make this all sound rather retro and old-hat, but it’s worth investigating; exhausting, overloaded sound, which is also exhilarating at some level.
Equally overloaded is Artwork 51 (ZOHAR 273-2), the second release by the trio of Old Castle. I still remain slightly surprised at how this odd team-up of Robin Storey, Robert L. Pepper and Shaun Sandor ever came together, but you can recap what we know about their backgrounds from our brief note of February 2022. Crazy electronics, beats, samples, and distortions…what strikes me about this group is they can’t seem to leave anything alone and are never satisfied with a track, ever tinkering with additional elements, piling on layers as their artistic demons dictate. Rarely a quiet or contemplative moment for us listeners, nor a second to breathe fresh air; each tune feels like it’s being pulled in three different directions at once. Even so, some remarkable inventions and aural innovations do fly to the surface in amidst this confusing swirl of unhinged dynamics. The label press notes seem convinced this music is a plausible update on classic kosmische music of the 1970s from Cologne, and draw comparisons with Cluster and Neu!. In the next breath, they’re also telling us to enjoy the psychedelic trance states it can impart. It is kinda lysergic, but we can’t settle back and enjoy the trip because of some talkative hippy in the room who won’t shut up and who’s harshing everyone’s mellow.
Robin Storey here also as his solo act Rapoon with Skulls On The Plains Of Turkey (ZOHAR 274-2). I’m glad he’s found a sympathetic home on the Zoharum label who continue to publish his new releases and, for a time, offered reissues and remix versions of his earlier works. This one continues Storey’s preoccupation with non-Western music forms and repurposing of same; one way to account for his grand project might be as a recasting of ethnic music samples into new forms of ambient, techno, or drone music. What strikes me about Skulls is the clarity of the sound, betokening a clarity of purpose; each sound, each note, stands apart, taking its place in the well-knit tapestry. I shan’t say that his 1990s work was “murky” in comparison, but it’s interesting that he’s apparently set aside the processing toolkit and mixing desk in favour of a rigorous collage method, resulting in stark outlines and bold shapes. The press notes speak of “tribal rhythms” and “the exotic world of the Orient”, and hint at the possibility that the album tells a coherent start-to-finish fictional story.