Brandkommando is Karol Wachowski. He lectured us on his 1989 album, a record commenting on the history of civil unrest in Eastern Europe, and continues his socio-political agenda on today’s Enslavement (ZOHAR 350-2). In four tracks of despair and gloom, he launches embittered attacks on all institutions that curtail personal freedom and indoctrinate the populace into submission, starting with governments and the organised church. I can’t recommend this fellow’s work; I am not a fan of harsh power electronics, and his back catalogue is littered with very questionable cover imagery, which would have been borderline unacceptable in the 1980s, even. However, I’ll admit that Enslavement, although utterly gloomoid from stem to stern, is at least halfway listenable and free from the abrasive electric shocks or unsubtle bludgeoning outrages of most power electronics. Even the track ‘War’, which might have contained audio explosions fit to annihilate us, is just ten minutes of Wachowski growling and snarling like a chained wolf.
More listenable by far is Live Burning Burning Live (ZOHAR 348-2) by The Holy Family. It’s avant-ish rock music with traces of psychedelic music and krautrock lurking in its inconclusive grooves. We noted this band (as The Stargazer’s Assistant) a couple of time previously, and it feels like an improvement on the wispy Fire Worshipper. It’s mostly a vehicle for David J Smith, the drummer from Guapo, who sings and bangs his drum synths; last time he had members of Coil and UnicaZurn joining him on his mystic quest, but today the guitar freakouts blast our way courtesy of Kavus Torabi, the Iranian player who has been in The Cardiacs (and also a member of Guapo). There’s also some nifty keyboard action from fellow Cardiac Craig Fortnam. With their meandering long-form songs and vaguely sci-fi imagery on this album, this group stand on the cusp of becoming a Gong for the 21st century, or at least a worthy support act for Richard Pinhas. The gig was recorded at the Dutch Roadburn Festival, apparently a magnet for stoner rock fans.
Now for some “cinematic ambient” from Greece…iNsCissorS have been active since 1999 and may be a group led by Vincent Andelmoth, though with the weird alias names and masked doubles, it’s hard to be sure if others are involved. The cover of The Wordless God II (And Other Cinematic Rituals) (ZOHAR 353-4) depicts an imaginary scene from a gothic sleaze-porn masterpiece which also involves alchemy, witchcraft, and crushing the bones of your enemy into powder; at least that’s my take on it. At least it’s more arresting than the tedious music hereon, which involves bad poetry recited in a portentous manner over a series of ghastly, pallid drones of excruciating slowness. This yawner originally appeared on the Greek FYC Records label in 2024; he even created a limited edition version in a sackcloth bag with a knitted doll of a satanic goat! Now available as a cassette from Zoharum.
Swedish player Jarl continues his plan to explore “physical states” of mankind and put them into imagined musical forms. Synapse Variation Report (ZOHAR 349-2) even has a pseudo-scientific title, as if he were presenting an academic clinical study. It’s to do with neurons and how they interpret chemical signals in the body; it may be connected to his previous release Receptor Radiation. Previously I’ve enjoyed these Jarl records more when he’s incredibly focussed on the subject at hand, even to the point of remorselessness, and found a perverse pleasure in the discomfort engendered by his stern, unvarying drones. Today I’m complaining because he’s not remorselessness enough; worse yet, he’s succumbing to the temptation to play simple melodies, and today’s record feels like a sketchy blueprint for a late LP by Tangerine Dream.
All the above received from Zoharum 30 May 2025.