BIOMASS - Electrozali
(CD, low impedance)
This one has been laying
around for a few months now, as it has been released in May actually, but
the dark and brooding electronic soundscapes of Biomass didn’t fit the
bright light of this summer anyway, so maybe the old saying is true:
everything deserves its time when its time is right and now it es late
September, the wetter becoming colder, the nights longer and the reasons to
stay at home more convincing.
If so, the right time for
“electrozali” is a dark and rainy night apt for pondering the ways our
civilization has taken from its very first origins in ancient Greek and
Syria to what it has become today. And this trail of thought is not only
adhered to the sampled lyras and string sections, especially the one at the
end of the title track, which give a certain historic feel to this
postmodern electronica. But also because the brooding, bass loaded
soundscapes of this album call up a movie that is more about the fall of
civilizations than the heroic deeds needed to build them up or defend them.
Electronic soundscapes, if
produced well, always have that contemplative air. Well, at least in my ears
and mind I can differ the good ones from the bad ones by this effect, that
the good ones seem to suck me into their world and then my mind starts to
wander as if by itself. And it deserves a nice stroll from time to time,
while the music sets the ambience. Carefull, though, Ambient is something
very different. Biomass likes to add vocal samples that radiate a glow of
imminent danger with their radio signal transfer aesthetic and he adds
heavy, straight beats to the whirring and buzzing electronic layers. In some
moments the intensity of the beats and the soundscapes becomes almost
dub-like and a feeling of Jesu starts to fill up the room. Or the moments in
which EndName
lose all their metal beats and riffs and go for just the sounds.
I wonder whereas the name of
the project, Biomass, is meant to hint at a big, massive chunk of biological
organism, or if it is a liturgical ritual in favor of some kind of organic
god. Both seem to go into the same direction, always along the lines of the
connotations fuelled by the music, but the first interpretation seems more
dangerous, more horror-/post-apocalypse movie whereas the second would focus
stronger on the ritualistic aspects of people gathering for music shows to
have their minds set straight (or twisted, whichever way you prefer).
Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by the philosophical questions these two
interpretations might open up if you take them too far. Better let yourself
be overwhelmed by the awash of spectral droning sounds.
