Al Karpenter
Musik From A Private Hell
FRANCE BRUIT DIRECT DISQUES Br-39 LP (2022)
Bizarre set of politico-informed electro non-songs from this fellow who might be Álvaro Matilla, member of Mubles, an obscure noise act from this part of the world whose music we have savoured in times past. “This part of the world” is Bilbao, home to other Basque Country diehards such as Mattin, Marta Sainz, Enrique Zaccagnini and Miguel A Garcia, all of whom happen to contribute to this LP, along with numerous other guests contributing turns on keyboards, electronics, backing vocals and percussion.
If there’s a trend to any of the music and sound that we’ve been hearing from the Basque area over the years, it’s a strain of wilful no-compromise and a very direct critique of modern society, as we writhe under the yoke of late capitalism. Some of the creators subscribe to the “no copyright” ethos as part of their struggle against commodification – we must certainly include Héctor Rey and his Nueni Recs label in that, as he’s stuck unwaveringly to the cause. Al Karpenter’s contribution to the “movement” is to sing protest songs about the modern world, starting from various extremist viewpoints – “we’ll burn it down before you land here” is but one threatening assertion made early on – and then proceeding to make each song as unlistenable as possible. Some tactics here include the tuneless singing voice – sometimes no more than a world-weary, resigned protest chant uttered in a listless way from vengeful lips – the ramshackle arrangements, which abandon all precepts of commercial pop music, and also the outbursts of toxic electric noise, guaranteed to ruin a listener’s pleasure as surely as black tar poured into your glass of cola.
Meanwhile the cover art – particularly the back cover, with its riot of unreadable computer fonts and overprinting – likewise attempts to inject visual chaos, partially by emulating the 20th-century Futurist and Dada approaches to typesetting and layout. We’ve seen a few of these Marxist-inflected techniques before from previous Mattin releases, but Al Karpenter thankfully tones it down by one or two notches, and on the A side at least arrives at some klunky vignettes which might even appeal to fans of The Door and The Window or Alternative TV, and other such “oppositional” post-punk idols. While we’re still in the late 1970s for a moment, the opening cut ‘No More Heroes Anymore’ may reference the Stranglers’ hit record, but it’s not a cover version of same as far as I can make out, nor does Karpenter exhibit the slightest interest in mimicking the dark gothic anger of The Stranglers. After these shorter ditties, the B side – labelled “Publik”, implying live recordings made on stage – sees our man spreading his talents over two longer songs of nihilistic despair, including the title track and ‘True-Man (The Revenge Of Tao)’. By now the thoroughly disconnected style of singing and playing will be wreaking the (probably intended) alienation effect on the listener, along with the lyrics which, instead of stirring revolutionary fervour with exhortations to man the barricades, simply wallow in futility and helplessness.
If it’s Socialist rhetoric you want, the Bandcamp page is full of it – “We glimpse the wound, the fall into this private Hades, in the sounds of profane, everyday technologies, the changes and glissandos of banjos and cellos that tear up the tropes of Heavy Metal and Southern Rock — forgotten welding, archeologies of industrial symbols beyond our reach.” All of this didactic spiel adds another dimension of possibility to this abrasive disc; somewhere there’s a concerted effort to destroy the entire history of popular music, or at least throw a firebomb or two at its cherished citadels. In like manner, the deliberately spastic instrumental approach from all the musicians is probably intended to undermine technology and wrong-foot our expectations. Not a pleasant record, but the spirit behind it is restless and oppositional, and you won’t have heard anything else quite like it. From 14 April 2024.