Æthenor - Deep in Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light (2006)
4,5/5 -
In my musical explorations for new and original, I often decide to check out a band simply by a seeing catchy name or an intruguing album cover. While in many cases these decisions end up being a big disappointment, some actually fulfill my expectations becoming the special ones in my music library. Æthenor is one of such perfect choices. The band comprises of Daniel O'Sullivan (member of a British experimental progressive rock band Guapo), Vincent De Roguin (who is also a member of a Swiss post-rock project Shora) and the American experimental metal legend Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))), Khanate, Ginnungagap, KTL etc.).
The music on the album can be loosely classified as a free combination of ambient, drone and noise. But this is not a dreamy, floating ambient of Brian Eno or Popol Vuh. The drones are not the subtectonic crushing riffs of Sunn or early Earth. And the noise isn't a Merzbow-esque constant ear-rape. The music on trio's debut album is deep and cosmic; heavy and light at the same time. This is not the kind of album you would play immediately after waking up, you wouldn't play this in your car going to school or to work. This is the music designed for the night. It should be played in pitch black darkness on a good stereo set with a powerful subwoofer. Playing and listening to it during a school break will destroy the whole effect.
Now, to the tracks on the album. There are four tracks, called simply by numbers. The first part, with two longer "songs" (10 and 13 minutes long) is generally darker than the latter part with two shorter compositions (a bit over 4 and a half and 5 minutes) which are lighter and more "positive" (if this word can be used while writing about this album). I begins with a silent, steady drone. Gradually the track builds its own haunting atmosphere, adding ethereal organs and weird metallic sounds in the background. Suddenly everything becomes clear: we are listening to the sounds of an old, abandoned ship. The crew is long gone, the wooden parts are creaking, wind is blowing through dead windows and corridors. Together with the sounds of waves and rustling chains there is some kind of howling, probably of the ghosts. This track is incredibly atmospheric and dark at the same time, hidden in the thick fog of sound effects and haunting drones. The second track, II is probably best described with the albums name: Deep in Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light. Because this is exactly how it sounds like. I can imagine a flickering, faint light among the dreadful darkness. While the first track was a kind of a sound-effect showoff and an introduction, some ethereal melody can be heard here. What probably gives a lot to the atmosphere, is an incredibly deep bass drone lying at the very bottom of the track, under all the other instruments. This is where the album gets the darkest and the most mysterious at the same time. Towards the end the music becomes more melodic and ligther thanks to the O'Sullivan Rhodes organs. III and IV are much more full of light than the previous compositions, it's like the travel toward the ocean's surface, when everything becomes much more visible and clean. The album is concluded by a beautiful, yet somewhat crazy keyboard loop and a crushing guitar riff, sounding like some kind of alarm or a fog siren.
Don't even think about picking this album if you're expecting something easy, happy and you are not used to music experiments. It may sound weird and chaotic at the first few listens, but if you give it a chance, you may soon see the Light among the deep Ocean.
Neu! - Neu! (1972)
5/5
Joy Division, David Bowie, Stereolab, DEVO, Sonic Youth, Gary Numan, Public Image Ltd., Simple Minds, Ultravox and Kraftwerk. Anyone whose music knowledge goes beyond the current Radio Eska hits knows at least a few of these bands. And still, it's a short list; listing all the bands and genres influenced by Neu! would be simply impossible.
Neu! was formed in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1971 after the forming members: Klaus Dinger (drums) and Michael Rother (guitar, bass guitar) left Kraftwerk for what Rother described as "difference of temperaments". While Kraftwerk was already headings towards more synth-based sound, Neu! still wanted to stay in the general rock area.
But this wasn't the usual rock'n'roll with many chords, elaborate guitar solos and vocals. Dinger and Rother completely redefined the structure of their songs, stripping the drums to the minimalist 4/4 motorik beat throughout the whole and changing the traditional guitar chords into spacey drones with many overdubs. Neu! is an example of what United Kingdom music journalists described as "krautrock" - a unique mix of psychedelic/progressive rock with experimental eletronics characteristic for Germany of the 70s.
In 1972 Neu! released their eponymous album. The sales were poor at the time of release, but it was obvious the guys from Neu! weren't looking for fame. Enough of this, time to talk about the music itself! The album begins with one of the best and most well-known songs they ever created: Hallogallo. Minimalist guitars and drones are only the background to the steady motorik beat, not changing even a bit through the whole 10 minutes long track. It's the beat that makes it so incredibly cool and special: every single person that heard this track came to conclusion it's perfect for driving a car. Driving fast. A pure affirmation of a German autobahn - the joy of journey, the ultimate driving song. And if you don't happen to be in a vehicle at the moment of playing this, you will find it strangely danceable. And most likely dance to it. That's two in one, people! A great DRIVING and DANCING track. Hallelujah!
When Hallogallo is over, there is Sonderangebot. Suddenly, a weird metallic ambient sonicscape arises. No drumming here. Noisy metal sheets being hit with something big from time to time, with lots of phasing added. Some may find it interesting, some may find if just plain annoying. The noisy ambient goes into another song, Weissensee. This is the most "traditional" song on the album, with slow, relaxed drums and dreamy guitars that create warm, pastoral psychedelia hovering in the air. I always imagine a nice summer day at the lake. Im Glück can be called a "water track", as there is an ubiquitous sound of water throughout the whole track. The melody is quite similar to that of Weissensee, but much quieter and minimalistic. And the drums are absent again. At first I hated this track, but somehow it grew in me as I kept listening. The distant gentle drones and seagull-like sounds create a laid-back atmosphere. It ends with sounds of water again. And when everything goes completely silent...
JACKHAMMERS! JACKHAMMERS! This is exactly how my absolutely favorite track of the whole album starts. This somewhat brutal awakening followed by distorted noises announces: Negativland has just begun. And then the motorik beat comes back in style. Together with heavily modified guitars in the background. The raw, almost industrial sounding of guitars in the background together with a nifty bassline and steady 4/4 beat give pure energy. That's the track I like starting my day with. Now forgive my vulgar language, but I simply have to say it: Negativland is one of the coolest motherfucking slabs of music in the whole fucking Universe. That's right. Almost 10 minutes of positive madness and proto-industrial bliss.
The last track, Lieber Honing is my least favorite on the whole album, but it's still pretty interesting. There is no drums, but there is Klaus Dinger singing together with Rothers guitar. Actually, he sounds like a baby, trying to make his vocals as faint as delicate as possible, which creates a funny effect, because his voice simply disappears and there is only some breathing. But the ethereal guitars and drones make his voice sounds like this, I guess. It wouldn't sound as characteristic if he was singing on the top of his voice. The whole album ends with a sound of water, like in Im Glück.
I give this album 5/5, because it is simply a milestone. Over 35 years since its release it still sounds as fresh as just recorded in a studio. And Neu! is a perfect example that you don't have to be famous and sell lots of albums to become a legend and an influence for the whole generations of musicians to come.
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