NOOUMENA

Another metallic avantgarde King Crimson have come around us again. Six years before, a French experimental rock project "muffling their faces in a mysterious veil" NOOUMENA have shot an impressive debut creation, that would have reminded me of the same vein of King Crimson (vividly in my mind). Yeah in their second mind invasion "Controlled Freaks", the first bullet "Seeds, Needs" extremely strikes me with outrageous, improvised riffs, just like a spark deeply in my ear. Not only aggressive but also tragic and reflective are their repetitive phrases (sometimes a tad cynical and critical, in a fine sense). "Bamboozled" is another distorted sound / melody garden under the dark sky. Sensitive, dissected formulae and powerful rhythmic obsession is quite superb for us. Let me call them not simply avantgarde nor Zeuhl-ish but stoner diversified ... the good example is a melodically ambient convolution "Something Else", one of my favourites. Very sensational and a contrast between this track and the following "Concealed" filled with metallic / jazzy / psychedelic mixture is kinda important linkage. The last "Dog Eat Dog" (very ironic just like "prog is dead") is a genuine authentication of their eclectic soundscape. You cannot help listening to this magnificent creation without any breath ... woohoo.

What have NOOUMENA tossed to us musically and mentally? With some essence of King Crimson, they might try to talk fully with their own (musical) words of beauty, I imagine?

No pic of them nor their detailed information has been found (even via Antithetic Records that has released this album as their official debut one), and I guess this obscurity like a dark nebula (also with their horrible sleeve pictures) should let us anticipate their music weirdness. All through this "Argument With Eagerness" we can hear mellow, transcendentally meditative, vertiginous psychedelia seasoned with heavy dips like Larks' Tongue and ethnic chops like Discipline Crimson.

Flooded with uneasy appearance and poisonous celluloid, they go ahead playing inorganically and cruelly as though they would jeer at us listeners. Sometimes aggressive instrumental quarrels are showed, sometimes lazy bandy ornamental scented balls are launched, and sometimes strict explosive cocktails are splashed (especially in "Le Plouc", with dramatic symphony and heavily structural rock).

Contrary to such a complexity, "Lucidity" is a poppy melancholic fantasy against cynic like them (fully reminds us something of Larks' Tongue In Aspic Part III, a theatrical but cynically tense one). The last "Taedium Vitae" can be mentioned as themselves compiled of all their complex structure, weird darkness and especially tortuous music discussion. Able to enjoy tremendous RIO-flavoured dark psychedelia with stoner hints. Let me say we're inexperienced in this line.