Yes this album is really called 'This Is The Mythology Of Modern Death' and it's by Thee Koukouvaya who come from the east coast of Crete. I think. Or have I misread the press release and it's about a mythic city on the Island of Crete and the band are from the East coast USA? Dunno, but either way this is a real leap in to the ambient waters of death.
Proceedings open with The Magnetic State: an ambient technoid journey into the sounds that may accompany your journey to the other side as the life washes out of you and you cease to be.
Anacaona is I guess a tribute of sorts of the ruler of what became Hispaniola and is awash with weird keyboard sounds and skittery beats over a repeating motif. As if we are at a wake where everyone is expected to dance with the corpse one last time, it's moving in an odd way.
Chicago Warehouse Party, 1995 is nothing like the party I attended in Chicago in 1995 as it doesn't have anywhere near enough swing to it and I doubt I'd end up going onto the Green Mill for Continentals after hearing this tune. It's obviously a bit of a Frankie Knuckles homage and has some pretty great cheap keyboard sounds in it. That's before it descends into some mid 90's computer game noises and a closing part that is pure dance floor madness.
Drunk Machine features the sounds you might hear while finally expiring from being on a 6 month binge. When finally succumbing to alcoholic ruin, there's a confused look on your extremely red face as they try to save you by locking you in the drunk tank for your own good. As the track progresses you get to the feelings of the DTs racking through your brain and the beats pound on your mind to remind you that you have indeed survived.
40.207958.-74.041691 is not the snappiest title ever and is almost over quicker that I can type the title. It's sort of an ambient dark interlude like the pause between the end of a prayer and the coffin moving into the incinerator for cremation at a crematorium.
|
Phantoms In The Last Age has intriguing keyboards under the almost dance beats and sort of screaming sounds. It's nice and nasty at the same time as if you are celebrating the life of someone who has died after a long painful illness.
Prismatic Sun is fragmented and yet built around a repeating motif that almost sounds like a stuck record as the beats go off in all sort of directions and the mind gets melded to all sorts of modern sudden deaths. Yet this is not a death by Suicide Bomber but it could be death by the repetitive drone or just gratitude for a swift exit.
The album closes with A Life In A Portolan Chart, which for those of you who aren't ancient mariners were the charts made by sailors to navigate with using compasses in the 14th to 17th century. Indeed, the tune feels like they are hoping to get into port without coming a cropper on the rocks. Can they make it in without sinking and losing half the crew or not? Well as it fades out, it does feel as if they are weighing anchor and are safe once more.
This is an interesting album of ambient techno. It's pretty much unlike anything I've heard that might fit into a similar category and it is recommended for musical voyagers and adventurers.
Find out more at Thee Koukouvaya Facebook page
|
