OCCULT ROCK

We all know that Krautrock's heydays are over, so let's not get to touchy with what recent bands are trying to make with its sounds. David Bowie was the first (non-German) in using Krautrock influences in a pop context; Kraftwerk opened the door for synth pop of the early 80's; Neu!'s tape manipulation paved the way for remixes; Cluster played electronica in the middle of the 70's; Tangerine Dream made ambient music even before Brian Eno was theorizing about it; Faust's experimentation were like a premonition of the Industrial sound of the 80's. So, even though Krautrock is pretty much dead, its influences stretch far and wide into a vast musical territory. It's no surprise then that Black Metal heads would try to use some of its influences and fuse it with their sounds. Well... It does sound surprising and shocking... And intriguing too, wouldn't you agree? Come on! Even though you've never heard of Black Metal, the idea sounds too curious to ignore, at least it'll raise some brows.

Aluk Tolodo, from France, are just that. Their Neu! fetish is pretty evident in the hypnotic style they play and it swallows all their Black Metal influence into controlled anger. The music is tense, bleak and awesome, but not depressive, if that makes sense. The album, Occult Rock, starts withe the only thing that resembles Black Metal: blast beat, though I'll bet that any fan of that genre has ever heard of a blast beat as drugged as this one! This song, the opener, is an endurance test, though in a good way. The rest of the album is nothing like it and the following songs are more subdued / trance-like, like Neu!, but with TEETH. The songs slowly morph into unrelenting climaxes which then morph into the next song on the album. Not every song is disturbingly dark, as the album title may suggest. The seventh track, for example, is one of the best Surf Rock songs of the 21st century. A band whose album is named Occult Rock, has a Black Metal background, plays an awesome Surf Rock song! Though, keep in mind, it's their own stab at that old Californian sound of the 50's.

This is not the happy hippie psychedelic jams of Amon Duul II or the kaleidoscopic effects found on a typical Hawkwind or Ozric Tentacles album. Aluk Todolo's psychedelia is controlled, claustrophobic, not without it's own spacey effects. The focus here is on the rhythm section. The bass sounds MASSIVE. The drummer never skips a beat and, man, does he know how to keep your heart racing! The guitar here adds more texture than melody, and the atmosphere is key in Aluk Todolo's sound. These three garçons know how to make their music sound immense and engaging from the moment you press play. It's a double album, but, when in the right mood, the length seems way shorter... Probably because of the hypnotic effect this music tends to have on oneself. Hint: Let it drown you.

Here's a bizarre group that couldn't decide if it wanted to be black metal, doom metal, surf rock, Krautrock or psychedelic noise rock, so they decided to be all of them. Often at the same time! The battle between the aggressive and the psychedelic is in full play on this one. The very first track is probably one of the most aggressive pieces of drone music i've ever heard utilizing the blastbeats and tremolo guitar fury of black metal while sustaining a single chord for several minutes in an almost meditative manner which literally defies expectations. After a while strange new sounds emerge from the din and slowly unfold variations and patterns.

The secret to the success of OCCULT ROCK, the 3rd album by the unique French band ALUK TODOLO is that it likes to combine forms of metal with forms of space rock creating a unique space metal that takes its time to unfold at a nonchalant lolligagging pace. It often seems like the band is racing full speed ahead to get nowhere only to stay put which is a stark contrast indeed. Luckily I was unaware of the fact that this is a double album which more often than not makes me stop and think if I want to subject myself to so much music, but as I put in disc one I was pleasantly surprised as track by track the album unfolds its sounds and branches out into different musical arenas. The tracks pleasantly connect and each one takes you somewhere new. The only constant here is change with a heavy distorted bass and drums being the rhythm while the guitar takes on a post-metal duty of atmospheric generator. I was very surprised by this one. I can sit through both discs simultaneously and only get kind of tired of it by the very last doom metal inspired OCCULT ROCK track.