Orthrelm/Behold... The Arctopus | S/T Split
I thought this was the first official recording released by Behold… The Arctopus. It is not, but it is in fact the shortest, and cheapest, which is the real reason I got it. I’ve been meaning to get some records from those guys for a while since I started following them on Myspace if you can believe that.
Orthrelm I first got into through Kill Rock Stars when they were giving out a lot of free downloads. Seems odd now, because they seem so Metal; at least, they fit in perfectly into the current Weirdo Metal scene. But guitar hero Mick Barr started out in the KRS stable playing bass for Quix*O*Tic. And this side project fit right along with the spazz-math/noise rock of labelmates Hella and Nervous Cop. So KRS was featuring a couple Orthrelm tracks even tho the first record came out on Toletta.
Interesting? Dubious? Why even mention it. Why even spend time thinking about this footnote of a release? It’s referred to as an EP but it’s merely a split single, a song a piece, neither over 5 1/2 minutes. And not the most memorable tunes. It would be hard to tell which band was which if you didn’t know what to listen for. It’s two solid blocks of blistering instrumental intricacy-core. Speed Metal at 78, the record broken and randomly glued back together. The thing I’m into here is that these two bands that sound so similar got there in opposite ways.
BTA is inspired solely by extreme Technical Death Metal bands and Modern Classical composers. Every note of their songs is written on paper and then played back as precisely as possible. (It should be mentioned many bands write this way but do not have the chops or will to put in the practice hours to really perform their own music.)
Orthrelm rely more on improv techniques coming from a Jazz influence. This interview with Mick Barr explains how this works within his style of Metal. Knowing this, it’s much easier to hear the difference between the compositions. Orthrelm does not have the kind of doubled stop/start parts of BTA. (Which actually reminds me of bebop, but apparently that’s a coincidence.)
This record may be of interest to fans of Krallice, as it is the first meeting on record of main members Mick Barr and Colin Marston, as far as I tell. Altho they are on separate songs. And the music has zero to do with Black Metal. Some people might say Krallice is not really Black Metal, well, this record is really, really not Black Metal. It’s all relative. But check it out. There’s not much to risk only losing about 9 minutes of your time, that’s shorter than most individual Krallice songs. I think I’ve listened to this more than I would an LP of either band, it’s pretty enjoyable once you get into it. But I’m going to get those LPs still. In time.
TRIVIA: Orthrelm’s song Pithot 1 may not be an invented adjective for a situation as hot as a pit, but a French word for male goose [the word is from “Jersey French”] Seven years later, they have yet to follow up with the implied sequel. Maybe there’s a pun I’m missing. BTA’s song Paincave is just about a cave of pain, I think. But who knows.
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Daniel Menche | Hover
As far as I know Daniel Menche started out in the Noise scene of the 90s as one of those guys that would be on a comp with Merzbow and I’m not saying they were all doing the same thing but it was hard to tell any of it apart the first few hundred listens. He eventually evolved into a more unique manipulator of sound, working with layers of field recordings and different types of sounds, not just shrieking feedback of overdriven amps. (Altho I believe he still does something like that live, because, why not, it’s fun. Haven’t got the chance yet myself to see it but he used to blog a lot which is how I got back into him.)
Here he applies his layering edit technique to a choir of school children instructed to sing nonsense syllables at various pitches. The two tracks are the actual piece, which sounds like a something between chanting and a vast swarm of insects, and the raw recording of the kids. After an initial listen where it acts almost as a punchline or just a behind the scenes bonus track, I recommend listening to the second track first. Then it’s like a setup of this thing that seems very simple and a little silly into an insane trance-inducing fever dream of ego-ingulfing chaos. You’re going to want to try this on some good speakers you can crank up; I haven’t really messed with it too much, but I tried just having this on the ipod for walking around music and that is not such a good idea. I mean it’s a cool effect on headphones, maybe if you’ve got a beanbag chair or something try that out. But it’s a little disorienting is what I’m saying. Unlike some Noise records, it’s not going to blow up your stereo or melt your eardrums, but still, use with caution.
This is a download only release. I think his only one. You can get all his stuff on his personal bandcamp now but every other record has been put on vinyl or CD on various labels. I used to think of Noise records as conceptual art objects, like if you only downloaded them you weren’t even really “getting” it. I think it’s more true of some than others now. Like it was a statement, man. I only got $10 in my pocket, I can buy the new Pavement (used, of course) or some random Metal band no one cares about because it’s the mid 90s or I can buy this…thing that doesn’t even have anything like a song on it. I don’t think it’s really the same feeling you get from torrenting the Merzbox, making that choice. But maybe that’s just me. Certainly the Menche records you can get into the sound alone. This is probably a good one to start with.
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