Archive for June, 2019

Watch: ‘Non-Dit’ by Joni Void

Posted: 5 June 2019 in Recommended Streams and Videos
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

Joni Void is sharing a new video for the song ‘Non-Dit’ – created, performed, and shot by Jean Cousin (aka Joni Void) alongside frequent collaborator Sonya Stefan, the video draws inspiration from Joni Void’s riveting live show while highlighting Stefan’s beautifully gauzy, dream-like visual aesthetic. In the artists’ own words:

“The visual worlds of video artist Sonya Stefan and Joni Void collide for Mise En Abyme, as her experimental 16mm films meet the glass-effected projections from JV’s live performances, combined here to form a multi-layered “screen in a screen in a screen” music video for ‘Non-Dit’. Naomie de Lorimier (aka N NAO) prepares bouquets in a trance-like state, and performs vocal loops, while Sonya & Joni smudge the digital video with light-works and shots of flowers from two 16mm projectors, with crystals, glass and water placed in front.”

Watch the video here:

Friendship – Undercurrent

Posted: 2 June 2019 in Albums
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Southern Lord – 14 June 2019

The press release describes Friendship’s second album as ‘merciless’. I’ve barely recovered from their 2017 debut, Hatred.

The one -word titles are indicative of the succinct brutality on offer here. Those titles are as nihilistic as they are stark: ‘Punishment’; ‘Lack’; ‘Abandon’; ‘Plague’; ‘Hatred’ – gruesome, dark, signifiers of absence rather then presence, or otherwise of something sitting at the negative end of the spectrum. And Undercurrent is indeed brutal. The tempo is frenetic, with the drumming a whirlwind of sticks on skins and thrashing, crashing cymbals and the guitars a blurred mess of distortion. As for the vocals… spluttering, spewing, splenetic, this is the sound of inarticulable fury and the tearing down of the strictures of cultural confines, a primal roar that decimates all niceties in favour of pure, visceral release.

With only one of the album’s ten tracks crossing the three-minute mark, and the majority clocking in at under two and a half, it’s a short album that prioritises intensity over duration. And after a mere 22 minutes, Undercurrent has more than left its mark and I’m scarred, bruised, and half-deaf.

There’s no space for conversation here, and critique feels futile in the face of obliteration on such an absolute level. This is the sound of the dirtiest metal, with no soft corners or moments of respite. The only mercy is its brevity, but even in this short time, it’s got more than enough force to inflict serious damage.

AA

Friendship – Undercurrent

Newer Entries