11 IS ONE LOUDER: Colchester's musical conjurers Telepathy choose their Top 5 instrumental albums

 

Today's guests released one of the albums of the year in 2014 with the brilliant “12 Areas”, indeed Colchester-based instrumental sludge/post-metal band Telepathy are one of the underground's best kept secrets.  They play unique and ambitious music, not so much songs, rather complex compositions, music to get lost in, the perfect juxtaposition of beautifully mellow and hideously brutal passages which they execute with remarkable intelligence. Telepathy are musical conjurors, employing masterful tricks within the construct of their music, which they deploy in unpredictable ways throughout their art and that is indeed what they create, art in the truest sense, you never know what’s coming around the corner but you can’t wait to find out.

With each release their raw, voracious and vicious sound has gained more and more clarity, their ideas more expansive and forward thinking. Now, with Jaime Gomez Arellano at the helm, their new album “Tempest” is a different beast entirely. The producer, who can boast Ghost, Opeth and Paradise Lost as notches on his bedpost, is exactly what the band needed at this point in time, and it will surely propel them to greater, more luxurious stratospheres.  Subscribing to their own rules, the band are in a unique position of being embraced by fans of post-metal, hardcore, sludge and progressive music alike, which is testament to the bands imaginative, off-kilter and ambitious musical expressionism

“Tempest”, their second full length for all intents and purposes, is better experienced than anything. Be that in the flesh or sat in the dark with their immersive compositions blaring through your headphones, painting vibrant images in your imagination as they do, a monsoon of riffs, from slow, knuckle-dragging doom moments to the calculated chaos of Mastodon, spinning on a huge axis with their long, winding loops, this album hits you like a drug, freewheeling into your body.

Safe to say then, that THE SLUDGELORD are massive fans and ardent followers of their instrumental musical expressionism, so today it gives us great pleasure to have invited Telepathy to talk us through their top 5 instrumental albums, as we take our weekly trip into the extreme and turn the volume all the way up to 11.  Why do we go to 11,  because its one louder.   

Earth – “Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull” (By: Teddy James Driscoll)

This album is like a wander through the Palm Desert on peyote. The instrumentation and minimalist approach is both sonically rich and wonderfully bleak at the same time and you can almost feel the dry air dancing past your cracked lips as you journey through the barren landscape. All in all, it is just fucking great album!

Vangelis – “Blade Runner OST” (By: Piotr Turek)

First of all, I must say that I love synths. This soundtrack is both complex and spacious. I love the fact that although it is very ambient, there is enough depth to the music to allow a variety of instrumentation and sound. At the same time there are moments, like in the track "Rachel's Song", where a melody is sung without words, adding a human element whilst retaining its instrumental core. It's the whole climax up until the final moments, and my love of 80's electronic music, that makes it my favourite album to listen to. It contains all the best things from its period.

Bohren & Der Club of Gore – “Sunset Mission” (By: Richard Powley)

This was my first introduction to the band, and is still one of my favourite instrumental records to this day. Sometimes referred to as doom or noir jazz, Bohren & Der Club of Gore trade in an incredibly slow and ambient take on jazz soundtrack work. “Sunset Mission” perfectly encapsulates their smoky, dystopian brand of after-hours city jazz and never once lets you break from its grimy charms. Despite it's slow pace, the album is incredibly gripping and every shift, every change in each track is perfectly timed to make the greatest impact. Minimal, atmospheric and incredibly well played; “Sunset Mission” is an escapist soundtrack to the detective story that lives in your head.

Hans Zimmer – “King Arthur OST” (By: Albert Turek)

I think the layering/production/composition is one of the standout points for this Hans Zimmer score. It sounds like he used mostly orchestral musicians for this score, unlike some newer ones, which use electronic libraries of orchestral samples he’s collected over the years. I feel like this is fairly close to the type of music we write and it truly tells a story and fits the film beautifully - in fact I can't imagine the film without it - 50% of the film is that score for me. It says just as much as the picture does. The drums sound amazing and it's the kind of drum sound and playing I am leaning towards in the next Telepathy album, a big orchestral sound - epic and powerful. It's inspired me a lot. Compositions are super intricate and beautiful. Some of the harsh and heavy sections on drums, brass and other rhythmic ensembles are brutal and hit harder than a lot of metal records I've listened to recently.

Miles Davis – “Bitches Brew” (By: Piotr Turek)

The instrumental album that has had the most impact on myself would be “Bitches Brew” by Miles Davis. Its was the first time I heard someone using a guitar so well in jazz music, and the experimental nature of this Miles Davis period made it easy to fall in love with.

Honourable mentions:

Bongripper – “Miserable”

Mogwai – “Happy Songs for Happy People”

Burial – “Street Dealer”

Lustmord – “Purifying Fire”

Don Cabellero – “American Don”

Telepathy’s latest album “Tempest” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

Tangled Thoughts of Leaving - 'Yield To Despair' (Album Review)

By: Richard Powley

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 17/04/2015

Label: Pelagic Records

Fans of instrumental music, soundtracks and post-metal will undoubtedly find much to love within ‘Yield to Despair’, but to describe it as simply another post-metal album would be to do the band a great disservice. Their fresh and nuanced take on the genre, including noir-jazz and noise amidst crushing walls of sound is something to truly behold.

‘Yield To Despair’ CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). The Albanian Sleepover  - Part one

2). The Albanian Sleepover – Part Two

3). Shaking Off Futility

4). Downbeat

5). Yield To Despair

Tangled Thoughts of Leaving is:

Ron Pollard | Piano, Synth
BeHn Stacy | Drums, Noise
Andrew McDonald | Guitar
Luke Pollard | Bass, Samples 

The Review:

Owing as much to ambient, jazz and noise music as they do to the slow-building and weighty sound of post metal, Tangled Thoughts of Leaving deliver atmosphere in spades throughout ‘Yield to Despair’.

As the first song reaches its mid-way point, you have been treated to a weighty and slow building exercise in tension, before the jazzy piano runs that have defined TTOL as something unique amongst the instrumental rock scene, take centre stage and lead the track to its thrilling conclusion.   It’s here that TTOL have made a vast improvement, the restraint used in the playing allows a much more crushing tone to envelop the piece, the piano no longer stealing from the overall sound but engaging with and elevating the drama of the song to a higher degree than before.

As “The Albanian Sleepover” reaches its second part, a more noir-ish feel takes over amidst a Dillinger-like yet entirely more stable flurry of percussion. As the song ebbs and flows, different lines and instruments come to the forefront before the song reduces itself to a simple noisescape. A lone piano line reminiscent of Bohren & der Club of Gore accompanies the various scraping sounds and noise-work, creating an intense and ominous atmosphere. From here the song becomes a crushing dirge bringing to mind the mountainous sound of Omega Massif as it approaches in its thrilling climax.

Employing differing tactics and skills to create a momentous atmosphere is where TTOL really shine. Not once does any facet of the music sound out of place, and while different instruments and players do undoubtedly take centre stage at various points throughout ‘Yield to Despair’, it is never for the sake of virtuosic arrogance and only serves the mood they are trying to elicit.   What feels like the albums centre-piece is ‘Downbeat’  where all of this becomes most complete, with a breath taking and emotionally taxing example of everything that Tangled Thoughts of Leaving do so well, delivered with absolute precision throughout its 18 minute runtime. It feels like the albums most complete “song” and also its most energetic piece, all the instruments blending together to paint a picture of pure destruction.   

Fans of instrumental music, soundtracks and post-metal will undoubtedly find much to love within ‘Yield to Despair’, but to describe it as simply another post-metal album would be to do the band a great disservice. Their fresh and nuanced take on the genre, including noir-jazz and noise amidst crushing walls of sound is something to truly behold.

‘Yield To Despair’ is available here

FFO: OMEGA MASSIF, BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE, JOHN ZORN, GUAPO, NEUROSIS.    

Band info: bandcamp | facebook | official

Live Review : Bohren & Der Club of Gore, St. Johns on Bethnal Green, London, UK – 5/4/2014

Review :  

Doomy Noir Jazz legends Bohren & der Club of Gore in such an inspired choice of venue obviously seemed too much to miss for many Londoners, and with the performance being sold out over a month in advance, we were lucky to be there for such a captivating evening of droning soundscapes and mysterious laments.

To begin the evening event we were treated to Dean McFee, a solo guitarist playing what could only be described as Sun Ra jams on downers. Whilst suitably cosmic and droning, moments straying into more folk-ish territory seemed ill-fitting with the nights headliners, and minus any shifting atmospherics had just too much of an air of deja-vu to be truly captivating.

St Johns on Bethnal Green turned out to be the perfect setting for Bohren & der Club of Gore.  Any worries regarding the sound quality of a practicing worship church were swept away as every note of the set reverberated around the building, lending an otherworldly tone to an already magical body of work.

Illuminated by four spotlights placed above their instruments, the band crept through their latest and most romantic opus ‘Piano Nights’ in full, stopping only to introduce themselves and offer a quick joke regarding the song Unrasiert (translated as Unshaven, and named after “a sexual preference”).

With only these two short breaks Piano Nights was allowed to unfold majestically amongst it’s surrounding, the crowd not only engulfed in its sound but also the monumental amount of smoke filling the venue.  With drummer Thorsten Benning absent, the band admirably played on to a pre-recorded drum track and saxophonist and vibraphone player Christoph Closer became the central focus of the stage switching between his illuminated instruments with ease and grace.

Breaking with tradition and playing two encores, the band ended with what sounded like an excerpt from Black Earth, closing the performance on a chilling and unforgettable note. A rare treat to see live in the UK, Bohren & der Club of Gore succeeded in turning a simple church in Bethnal Green into a more seductive and ominous proposition altogether and with both band and venue working in tandem, Piano Nights was given an unforgettable introduction to the UK.

Words by : Richard Powley 

You can read our review of Piano Nights here

For more information :

http://www.bohrenundderclubofgore.de
http://www.facebook.com/bohrenofficial
http://www.pias.com/uk/
http://ipecac.com    

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Piano Nights (Album Review)

 

 

Album Type : Full Length

Date Released : 10/2/2014

Label : PIAS (UK/EU) / Ipecac (US)

Piano Nights, album track listing :

1). Im Rauch
2). Ber Rosarotem Licht
3). Fahr Zur Hölle
4). Irrwege
5). Ganz Liese Kommt Die Nacht
6). Segeln Ohne Wind
7). Unrasiert
8). Verloren (Alles)
9). Komm Zurück Zu Mir

Bio :

 

The sublime slowness which has propelled Bohren & Der Club of Gore for over 20 years is in good health. Returning with the suggestively titled Piano Nights, Bohren have not departed from their obdurate approach, yet in its title, much is revealed about the content. In to their sound has subtly crept the presence of a giant, and the name of the album shows nothing but exemplary respect for the instrument which governs here – the piano.

 

Inadvertently born out of Christopher Clöser’s boredom before a concert in Moscow, Piano Nights started as an idea when he tinkered with a grand piano, and resonated with the sheer depth and enormity of the instrument. Proving to be too noble, too powerful, what you hear on this album is not a grand piano, instead, they chose to utilise the sound of a Yahama electric – more ambiguous, less lofty and most significantly, not quite so serious. Energy is instantaneously channelled into sonic space through the interplay of piano, organ and vibraphone, governed solely by the Bohren laws which dictate the intense appreciation of slowness. The band has worked meticulously on this sonic space, uncovering some new and interesting aspects within their familiar aesthetic, and within themselves as musicians.

 

The four musicians, who consider Piano Nights to be their best album since Black Earth, are at pains to stress than the album title is not satirical, but a standard, a framework they set themselves. Considering their intermediary 2011 release Beileid, with its standout cover of Warlock’s ‘Catch my Heart’ (complete with vocals from antihero extraordinaire, Mike Patton), the routes open to Bohren were multiple and myriad. In this context, Piano Nights actually appears to be something of a return to their roots, albeit based on complex arrangements and a broader palette of sound. Packing in the sounds of mellotron, vibraphone, organ, saxophone, bass, drum, spirit choir – Bohren actively resist and refute the trappings of the word ambient, their instinctive musicianship creating the most slender of jazz; understated in its virtuosity, ambiguous in its transparency. Every minutiae, every fleck of colour, every spark and snap of percussion has the meticulous knowledge and unlimited patience of Der Club of Gore behind it – yet, unfathomable and beyond calculation, Bohren’s music is something which is best enjoyed and accepted. Sidestepping the pitfalls of routine and familiarity, Piano Nights poses the question of what to do when the acoustic information being relayed to you is outside of the parameters in which you can process? The answer, is to trust yourself, and let it wash over you – give it time, plenty of time, and you will see.

 

They are confirmed to play in London on Saturday 5^th April at St John On Bethnal Green.

 

The Band :

 

THORSTEN BENNING | (Drums),
CHRISTOPH CLÖSER | (Saxophones, Fender Rhodes, Piano, Vibraphone),

MORTEN GASS |  (Organ, Vocoder, 8-String Bass, Synthesizer, Mellotron, Fender Rhodes),
ROBIN RODENBERG | (Bass, Double Bass)

 

Review :

 

Bohren & Der Club of Gore. Not much can be said that hasn’t been said before, the group are simply as consistent as the seasons.  The soundtrack to a thousand lost film noir classics, a late night bus ride through sprawling urban decay, and a tragic love story filmed in black and white.

 

Bohren know what they do, and quite simply, they are and most likely will remain the best at it. With every release they subtly add a new element, albeit discreetly, to an unwavering formula. You may wonder what a band so steeped in noir jazz and soundtrack work is doing featuring on The Sludgelord, but that would be to miss the point.

 

The trio wield such an unforgettable mastery over slow motion laments of loss, mystery, intrigue and despair that they can appeal to even the most hardened of doom and sludge fans, whilst remaining true to their own sonic path. As with fellow masters of snail-paced melancholia, Warning, the sheer heaviness of Bohren’s work comes from the space in between the notes. The atmosphere, thick with the smoky aroma of cigarettes and whisky found in a thousand jazz club basements, is where Piano Nights excels.

 

Adding far more noticeable touches of electric piano has accentuated the choral, church like nature of the music, allowing the usual beds of ambience to float eerily past with every reverberating note. Sometimes during Piano Nights, the upfront piano and bass work will allow you to hang on a moment of uplifting joy, a chord progression that lifts you from the dystopian turmoil and melancholia prevalent in almost all of their recorded work and it feels as epic as any musical climax from Sigur Ros or Mogwai. The only difference being ,this is simply one bar of a song, and the band consist of a keyboardist, up-right bass player, saxophonist and drummer.

 

And that is where the true genius of Piano Nights (and Bohren & Der club of Gore in general) lies, in the bands ability to pull and push your emotions at will, even whilst crawling at a pace usually reserved for the bleakest of funeral doom.

 

Every album by these guys is a journey, and Piano Nights is no exception. It’s the same Bohren on Piano Nights as on every past release, but maybe this time they pushing you towards the light at the end of the tunnel, with a sound as timeless as the instrument that inspired the album.

 

Words by : Richard Powley

 

For more information :

http://www.bohrenundderclubofgore.de
http://www.facebook.com/bohrenofficial
http://www.pias.com/uk/
http://ipecac.com