Lili Refrain’s fifth release ‘Mana’ was an interesting proposition. The record’s nine compositions drew influence from a variety of styles. The opening couplet (‘Ki’/‘Kokyu’) set a fairly cold mood by mixing light drone with choral vocals; ‘Eikyou’ featured strong, soaring vocal lines against heavy tribal influenced rhythms; the much darker ‘Ichor’ shared a vocal mantra shifting between the gothic and operatic, augmented by orchestral sounds via heavy synth work, only allowing finger cymbals to bring any lightness to the piece. Better still, and slightly more accessible without shifting too far away from Refrain’s sense of the artistic, ‘Ahi Tapu’ occasionally sounded like early eighties Tangerine Dream fused with a Brad Fidel film score, topped with whispering Japanese vocals, and latterly another neo-operatic melody that showed Refrain in possession of a huge voice.
Tag Archives: avant garde
MEGAFAUNA & HOMESICK GHOSTS – Nature Is Healing EP
An array of inaudible voices greets the listener at the beginning of this EP, almost as if eavesdropping on a field recording of train station announcements sourced from a damaged cassette. With the arrival of a repeated three note keyboard riff lurking beneath a world of ambient sounds – ranging from something that sounds like the rhythmic clatter of trains on tracks, to noises that evoke imagery of workmen shifting huge piles of rubble – it’s clear that this listening experience will be more about creating a mood than enjoying any “traditional” music.
KPT – Claw EP
During 2020, when the world was in turmoil and a lot of musicians and gig goers were feeling socially lost, KPT (pronounced “Kept”) delivered a record that felt suitably dark and befitting of the time. ‘Big Witch’ jumped between electronic genres, sharing soundscapes that blended deep drone (‘Lament’), heady beats (‘Untamed’), and even ventured into into industrial sounds (‘Second Thoughts’). The relatively minimalist album really came into its own, though, when KPT explored some wonderfully bleak soundscapes that evoked ominous sounding film scores. It wasn’t the kind of album you’d necessarily pull off the shelf every day, but within its half hour playing time, it offered some enjoyable instrumental noise when approached in the right – suitably detached – frame of mind.
MORLOCKS – Amor, Monstra Et Horrore Profundi EP
In terms of musical interest, Morlocks’ 2023 LP ‘Praise The Iconoclast’ didn’t sell its listeners short. On the stand out track, ‘I’m The Payload’, the band managed to fuse orchestral sounding synths to a relentlessly mechanical rhythm, before loading the arrangement up further with alt-pop vocals, 80s keys and a few rock-edged guitars. The result sounded at times like an industrial band channelling early Oingo Boingo, with a couple of vocal phrases in the latter part of the number that hinted at a love of KMFDM. Rather fittingly, that legendary band’s Käpt’n K would also make an appearance on the record, and somewhat predictably, his presence throughout ‘Mean World Syndrome’ leant that number more of a KMFDM flavour. Elsewhere, ‘Instigation’ swamped vocal samples with a heavy groove and nods to classic Ministry, and taking another curveball, ‘Cold War Fusion’ melded soundtrack-like elements and darkwave melodies into an epic closer that more than suggested this most cult of bands still had musical ground to cover somewhere in the not too distant future.
GEIGER VON MÜLLER – Alien Fig Yoghurt Incident / Origins #5 (Pelso Remix)
It takes all of a second to realise that, in terms of guitar instrumentals, Geiger Von Müller’s ‘Alien Fig Yoghurt Incident’ isn’t entirely of this world. It opens with a flurry of insanely high pitched harmonics, creating more of a mood than a melody. This immediately catches the ear, but makes the listener wonder where things are actually headed. A saner guitarist might flesh out such a technique with a couple of broad chords to make things palatable, but not this guy…