VARIOUS ARTISTS – Dirgenera
Quadrivium MMIX
(CD, r.a.i.g.)
For any kind of independent
enterprise, networking is a major issue and the main root to stay afloat.
Therefore it is good to be introduced to Dirgenera, a Russian community
focusing on doom, black metal, sludge and any other kind of heavy, dark rock
or not rock music, by our old friends of the Russian Association for
Independent Genres (R.A.I.G.). RAIG we know to have a heart for these kinds
of music, and now they are producing quality manufactured releases to
showcase the dark cream of the crop of Dirgenera, so what you get here is
four bands / tracks from Dirgenera from last year. All of that is within the
latin title “dirgenera quadrivium MMIX”, so no dark secrets here.
It starts with Vir’, who
offer a twelve minute long track titled “clay”, that spans from pure
guitar distortion waves in the beginning to screamed banshee vocals and ends
in a mass of noise to fade out with a long, heavy electronics bass line. The
mix includes an acoustic guitar, of which – and this is basically the only
thing bad you can say about “clay” – only the noise of the strings
being strummed can be heard, because it is so submerged in the mix by the
other noise that is just drowned. But, in judging these recordings, we have
to keep in mind, that they are culled from demos (or not even demo
recordings) from the darkest cellars of Russia, so they are meant for saying
hello to the world. And in this it is an impressive track over all.
(Moreover, I have heard much worse on full releases by so called major stars
within the fringe part of the metal scene…) So, pretty good, amazing
stuff.
Next on, Váli, go right to
the middle of Scandinavian mythology by announcing “Yggdrasil”, the tree
on which almost all of the Scandinavian god tales are located. My favorite
part is the little squirrel that exchanges rumours, spite and bad news
between the female demons o fate that sit at the roots of the tree and the
ravens that are perched in the crown, because I imagine this squirrel to be
a funny, ecstatic and witty little fellow. Nothing of that is to be found in
the almost a quarter of an hour long track by Váli. It starts with a slow
and low bass noise rumbling, that is joined by a high-pitched, heavily
distorted guitar after four or five minutes in the same tectonic pace. And
it doesn’t change much for the rest of the following twelve minutes or so.
But within this kind of musical frame, not changing, means a lot of
internal, minimal changes and for the transcending effect, the monolithic
structure is essential.
Hermansyndrome step into their
track right heavy. “Birth” starts with more distorted guitars and
manipulated synthie sounds to go along in the same dark vein. A big block of
feedback noise that slowly turns into a frenzy of chaos and rubble. But then
after ten minutes they break into a full tilt riffage with drums, guitars
and bass only break off after a few moments to introduce an almost romantic
melody setting of synth strings and bird song. Which, as you may have
guessed, doesn’t last long either.
The final participant are
Aethyr and their track is most aptly titled “Mass”. And I think they
mean both the volume of something very big as well as the liturgic,
religious event of the same name. I have no idea about the ideological
background of any of these bands, and of some bands in this genre the
intellectual background is very questionable. Yet, as most of these tracks
are instrumental and a wave of noise carries no message aside its own
distorted frequencies, I trust the good judgement of RAIG. The anarchistic
value of listening to something that most people would call unlistenable in
the first place is not connected as such with any side of the political
spectrum. Anyway, “Mass” amongst other things is the most industrial of
the four tracks on here, due to the metallic percussions arising and the
gothic chorus or rather echo in the back.
Of course, all four bands are
playing in a very limited arena of fringe music. All of them slow, sludgy,
dark and heavy and approximately fifteen minutes long, but that is intended
to be showcased. So, if you are interested, here is the place to go to.
Connect, contact and consume - to support the underground. Caveat! Be quick,
for there are only 102 handnumbered, silk-screen-printed numbers of this
available (and mine is already numbered 102. But that is the main thing when
interested in the vast underground of things, to know it is virtually
impossible to know it all, and therefore to be quick, with keen-senses and
an open mind.
