REVIEWS
[n]
Nokalypse:
'Ocean of Inexistence' Triple Bath CD-R (trb.002) Ltd.76. Athens,
December 2006.
How
can you be super-minimalist, extremely fragile and frighteningly
loud and volatile all at the same time? Another stunning offering
from the fledgling Greek label run by Themis Pantelopoulos (whom
I suspect is the artist behind this), following only a month
after the first release but composed between Sep.'04 and April
'05. This time a whopping 81:16 minutes with some rather intelligent
and thought provoking sounding track titles (or rather sub-sections
of tracks) inviting me in; eg. 'The Drive to Gradual Arrogance';
'Space Exists as Far as You Don't' and 'Congregatory Contradistinction'.
After a truly superb gradual building tsumani wave in the three
parts of 'Poetrig', track two, my personal favorite, 'Underred'
enters into the realm of ultra-deeep rhythmic trance with an
urgency which turns out far more sophisticated than anything
I've heard from latter day underground techno-meisters (eg.
Cypher, System 7) but then that's the nature of the material;
for listening, and what pleasure it gives. Understated synth-solos
glide over layers of frantic beat, giving way ultimately to
introspective, nightmare visions of freestyle piano competing
with sub-bass drones and malfunctioning holograms of dolphins
in distress.... Fear not, the 3rd part of this 2nd movement
harmoniously titled 'Cycles of Fulfillment' brings belonging
back to the picture; the piano is rather classical and even
new-agey but never overides the mysterious theme of the 12 minute
piece. The 17 minutes plus of 'Orgiellegro' is a very loud and
unrestrained slow melodic analogue synth-stab exercise, well
executed and inspiring, the theme coninues with 'Carreira' resulting
in a rather lengthy visitation into deep space with minor nods
toward more obscure Jarre as well as Tangerine Dream and Phil
Niblock, an oriental style melody floats in at the end, reminding
me of the Ozrics, although it is unfair to say there is influence
from any of these directions, the whole album being so strong
and original overall. The final 'Aggrauche' proves there was
no shortage of ideas during the eight month recording session
and more ultra-ambient scapes evolve painfully slowly, over
a brave 23:27 minutes, giving way to a seemingly unending managerie
of bizarre sonic images, the gorgeous ambient drones all the
while subconciously keeping me hexed stock still on the chair
to the very end.
Warning: do not drive, operate machinery or attempt to speak
whilst listening to this truly great work, in fact use it to
escape from such futile nonsense. And I thought I was going
off electronic music.
Note: Both this and trb.001 (below) are only 5€ inc. post
direct from the label.
Other
Triple Bath recordings:
(((Stereofect))):
'PING'
Press
release (MSWord)
Triple
Bath Website
31 Dec 06
