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Released
June, 1998

Label
Iris Light

Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund

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Last Edit/Update
02 juli, 1998

Band Of Pain

RECULVER

         
Track Listing

1. Our Little Secret
2. You Won't Meet Again
3. KOOA IBB + ILU ILLU.M
4. Rejected By Resonance
5. Bloodbath
6. Dr. Tumblety Has Flown
7. The Vanishing
8. 3445 South La Brea Avenue
9. Habernero High

          Bookended by an opening explosion of pummeling noise-beats, and an exit of slow, conspicuously resolved chimes; Band Of Pain's new CD Reculver is a slow walk through a twilit nightmare zone of dark, menacing atmospheres. The CD has great unity; with the nine tracks being almost exclusively based in disconcerting layers of droning and other eerie sounds. Shattering monotone beats are present here and there, but otherwise percussions are absent; and, although voices are occasionally heard, neither are there any vocals as such on Reculver.
          Like their first full-length (You're Miss Fortune), which came out in 1996, Band Of Pain's second album is also released on Iris Light.

          After the brief brutal noise attack of "Our Little Secret," Reculver shifts into a slow-motion landscape of large, turning monoliths of solid, hovering sound. "You Won't Meet Again" is underscored by a deep thematic presence, and the fragile sound of a human breathing through a life support system marks the passing hours of the piece.
          Sustained signals separated by moments of nearly complete silence open "KOOA IBB + ILU ILLU.M". Then, feverish, rhythmic impacts, as of an enormous metallic piston, arrive. A hauntingly beautiful theme fades in beneath the apocalyptic stomps -- the effect is chilling; a musical depiction of the end of everything. And, the end comes, with the abrupt, squelched sound of a radio being tuned, but never receiving a clear signal.
          "Rejected By Resonance" pits the subdued stuttering sound of a phone unsuccessfully attempting to connect, against another wall of foreboding atmospheres. Aside from the appearance of treated, acoustic percussions about half way through the piece, this track develops little, choosing instead to remain rooted in the intense ominous airs conjured up at the beginning.
          Crashing impacts are the pillars around which the next track "Bloodbath" revolves. Presumably the bloodbath of the title refers to the killings of a psychopath, who took "...the fartings of the neighbor's dog to be the voice of Satan," and consequently went on a killing spree -- at least this is the topic of the media samples, which Band Of Pain has weaved into the piece. The accompanying "horror soundtrack" is pieced together from grinding interference, distant sirens, deep rumblings, and the screechings of old corrugated hinges.
          Reculver only gets better. Despite the silly title, "Dr. Tumblety Has Flown" is one of the most uncompromising and hypnotically beautiful examples of what has been termed dark ambient, imaginable. The piece naturally features the by now characteristic overcast cloudscape of doomladen harmonies, hovering like a heavy carpet of sound over everything else. Sparkling, against this overpowering drone, are clinically clean synth beams flashing through the darkness, tolling bells, dying radio signals and ghastly female chorals. All the while, remnants of themes -- suffused with melancholy -- wander through the piece like so many lost souls.
          Equally powerful is "The Vanishing," forcefully driven as it is by a relentless, reverberating, slamming beat. Incomprehensible words are muttered amidst the chaotic sounds of airplane propels, and metal striking metal. A slow, dense theme writhes and turns in the background, washed along by buzzing atmospheres.
          "3445 South La Brea Avenue" features a deep, brassy synth theme, strange, contorted manipulations of electronic guitar riffs, and a female voice played in reverse. Later in the piece, an array of electronic minutiae dance in the menacing melodic darkness, and the track ends in a brief sequence of cut-up noise emissions that most of all sound like a misfiring engine.
          The final (and longest piece) on Reculver is also one of the most complex and developmental. Dominant are of course Band Of Pain's hallmark ambient structures, but, on "Habernero High" these recede into the background somewhat, as the ear is constantly distracted by a series of other sonic incidents -- short-circuiting gadgetry, grinding electronic static, various bleeps and beeps, liquid metallic drippings, and vibraphonics.
          
          Band Of Pain's music is almost surreal in its overpowering darkness, and Reculver is a potentially very depressing album to listen to. However, like anything that carries within it the potentiality to be uncomfortable and unsettling, it is also intensely fascinating and compelling.

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