ALUK TODOLO

The shape of "Occult Rock" to come.

This is Aluk Todolo's debut single. It's the first music they managed to release and it was only a mere example of the things to come. The two songs presented on this single are around five minutes in length and shows the band at an early stage void of any industrial influences and with a post-rock-like cleanness in their sound.

Side A is the song that closest in spirit to the music in their debut, but, like I previously mentioned, the sound is cleaner and stripped from all of the harsh and disturbing effects that will dominate the band's later release. Side B sounds like a completely different band. The music here hits you hard and fast. There's not a single trace of "occult rock" to be found on this song and it actually sounds like something that Neu! would release if they where still alive and kicking in the 21st century.

The music on this single is very different to that on their full-length debut. Aluk Todolo sounds a bland and lacking personality on this single. This shows a band that's still looking for their own sound and luckily enough they managed to found it within the same year. If you really want to know what Aluk Todolo are about then you're better off listening to their full-length debut, "Descension".

This EP works much better for me as the following full album. There's no dark 'occult' atmosphere coming up here - on the other hand it's not so unique of course.

ALUK TODOLO is starting Side A in an industrial mood which intones what 'Descension' delivers later on but is leaving the path a little bit arranging a dramatic post rock wave afterwards similar to ISIS for example.

Side B is a high speed jam, much more Krautrock inspired in the vein of Amon Düül 2, with a hypnotic and powerful punching bass and weird psychedelic guitars. I would prefer to hear more of this ...

The debut release by ALUK TODOLO came out a year before the first full-length album in the form of this eponymous EP that contains only two tracks simply named "Side A" and "Side B." This one was only released on 7" vinyl and debuts this French experimental band's fascination with incorporating magical theories with traditional rock instrumentation to create new forms of consciousness and meditative states. Although they don't incorporate black metal into the mix quite yet, they are often associated with black metal because of members involvement in Diametregon and Vediog Savior.

"Side A" begins with a repetitive bass ostinato with cymbal action and drumbeats accompanying. The guitar takes on a post-rock type of role as it dances around the groove and creates hypnotic riffs. The track picks up steam gradually and ratchets up the tension while the cymbals and drumbeats become more powerful. In the middle there's a slow down but picks up the tempo again as the guitar becomes more frenzied and murky in the mix. It ends with some spoken dialogue by Aleister Crowley.

"Side B" is a lot more energetic than the "A" as the drums take a prominent role in fast and furious rolls while the bass while still repetitive has a more complex ostinato riff that has a touch more melody to it. The guitar floats in screechy sustained distortion mode but also has the role of extending the sound structure to include a dissonant riff while background ambience bleeds in to create a sinister sounding backdrop which is more poignant when the instruments drop out for a while and only its spooky howling is heard. The band jumps back into the groove and the guitar adds more antics and effects and i also detect a slight surf rock type of guitar riff popping in towards the end.

Not a bad start for ALUK TODOLO as this would establish their hypo-groovy mix of no wave and Krautrock. The no wave aspect is more in play at this stage with jangly dissonant guitars reminding me of early Swans but the mesmerizing repetition certainly brings Kraut classics by Neu to mind as well. This one doesn't sound much different than the first full-length album but isn't quite as dark and spooky as the following releases become.