ALUK TODOLO

"Side A" sounds very much like the "Descension" album where their mesmerizing and transcendental opiate grooves combined with spooky atmospheres create nightmarish visions of cold ethereal visions of lost worlds. This track is characterized by a repetitive marching of the cymbal heavy drumbeat that works in tandem with the bass line as the guitar performs horrific distorted and mangled dissonant antics around them. As it continues the percussion becomes somewhat sloppier and erratic as some kind of buzzing sound swarms in and out while swirling ambience effervescently haunts the soundscape. Towards the end the percussion picks up speed and becomes quite solid as the no wave ostinati pummel the senses.

"Side B" continues imperceptibly with the chaos continuing in full force and continues to ratchet up the nightmarish tension with the instruments falling increasingly out of sync with one another generating true occult mystic psychological assaults as the pummeling percussive drive seems to be at war with the atmospheric swarms of sounds. ALUK TODOLO really blur the genre lines here as it sounds like a form of black metal no wave with Krautrock type psychedelia. While the earliest albums weren't very metal oriented yet, this release is actually the first one that has enough drive and distortion of the guitars to be classified as part of the metal universe.

Despite being some leftovers they seem to have gotten the royal treatment and elements of blackgaze were unleashed to steer ALUK TODOLO towards the more metal oriented "Occult Rock" sound. While they've always been on the verge of being somewhat metal, the intensity fell just short enough to actually feel like they would fit in. On ORDRE that thin grey line was crossed and there is lots of energetic noisy distortionfests at hand although the song structures are nonexisistant and simply relies on free form meandering down a torturous sonic path into oblivion. Pretty cool stuff if you like dark ambient distorted no wave with Krautrock and traces of black metal chaos.

"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.

On paper VOIX sounds much like what was established on "Occult Rock," namely black metal type tremolo picking with distortion galore with a frenetic and repetitive bass and drum to infinity while the guitar has little freak out dances around the main groove. Despite that similarity something sounds a bit different on this one. Whereas on "Occult Rock" it seemed like there was no sense of melodic development and in reality a very sophisticated take on the no wave sound that emerged in the early 80s by acts such as Swans, VOIX seems to have melodic developments albeit minor compared to the energetic performances that accompany each and every note that is played. In fact i think there is a slight surf rock type of thing going on at times but it is so obfuscated and drenched in hypnotic and chaotic time signatures that it is very hard to distinguish. But the fact that there is a variation in actual notes means that this album isn't nearly as meditative and mesmerizing as previous offerings even though it is!

Another aspect that makes this different from previous albums is the fact that the drums have gained some independence. While in previous offerings it was customary for percussion to be tied to the activities of the bass guitar, here it breaks free from its constraints and acts more like a jazz drummer would do and creates complex drum rolls that create a rhythmic backbone of the droning lysergic dissonant guitar distortions that venture into pure atmospheric space that can result in extended humming sprees. All tracks bleed into each other and this is really one long sonic journey through the noise filled halls of the jittery and distortion fueled head trips of ALUK TODOLO's wildest dreams. This type of music is in effect a psychedelic black metal free form extravaganza in a universe where no song structures exist and snippets of melody come and go as they please offering not a scant trace of rhyme or reason or any predictability whatsoever.

These sounds are solely for those who love noise, chaos and cold, dark places. This "music" may contain more elements of melody that the listener can latch onto in order to have some point of reference but they are equivalent to the bio-lantern of a deep sea angler in the crushing pressures of the deepest recesses of the Mariana Trench. This is bizarre music that is equally evocative as an active listener as a passive one. Much like the mathematics of a fractal, you can zoom into the details of your temporal comfort zone or not. This is music that is equally bizarre if you fully focus upon every detail or simply sit back and shop for new shoes on your favorite internet site. There seems to be a slight step up in the evolution of ALUK TODOLO and even though it took four years, it is excellent to hear their distorted reality coming into a new phase as it gradually and reluctantly takes on more melodic aspects of music and twist and distort them into their own bizarre concoctions.

A COLLABORATION features four tracks that are all close to the ten minute mark with each one having somewhat of its own personality. The first two tracks sound rather similar as plodding bass and drum mesmerize as they drift on into infinity while strange lysergic organs dot the ambient soundscapes and noisy guitars jangle into one distorted frenzy after another. The first two tracks are also fairly non-musical and very much utilize the no wave meets Krautrock technique of ALUK TODOLO's first two releases also they don't seem as dark and soul piercing. 
The third track takes on a different flavor as it has more of a techno groove while spoken muffled words come and go while a guitar actually musters up some musical mojo and creates a lingering solo of sorts. Track four has a much more industrial sound as a regular uptempo beat ushers in Bauhaus type guitar riffs and a rather "jingle bells" type of percussion along with the electronic beats. This track sounds the most "normal" of the four and wouldn't sound out of place on a Skinny Puppy album minus the vocals as the final two tracks actually provide melodic developments which is virtually absent on ALUK TODOLO releases.

While i'm not familiar with BLUTHARSCH, i have to say that for an ALUK TODOLO album, it seems that the collaborative effort has watered down their freak factor a few notches as the tracks have lost a bit of their edge after the extreme tripped out darkness that preceded. The atmospheric ambience is just as hypnotically blissed out but something has been somewhat sanitized in this mixture of ideas. Be that as it may, this is still a compelling journey through the bizarre reaches of the sonic universe. Cool album but falls short of the cream of the crop.

As with the first album, the combination of the repetitive bass and drums with the spastic and jittery screams of anguish from the guitar that throw a stake in the heart of any passers as the rhythm sounds like a giant goblin parading through the darkened forest to slay unicorns. While musically this could be classified as a mix of no wave, noise rock and Kosmiche Krautrock, it really develops more like post-rock with all the accoutrements of the aforementioned with spastic little bursts of metal energy now and again exploding like little volcanic releases of tension. The production allows every little sound to pierce through the soul in controlled doses and yet somehow sounds raw and organic. Some of the percussive beats turn tribal as if the astral attack has set its sight on Native American sacred sites as the tom toms repetitively commence while the frenetic chaotic swirls of distortion and ambience radiate from every direction.

This is simply freaky stuff here and one that could drive you to collapse in fear if listened to in the dark or in a cold and questionable establishment. As with the debut, this is not musical composition per se but rather a beeline into the abyss of the sonic voids of space and then subject to the physics of the vacuum left behind as the sporadic guitar distortions suddenly appear and then fade away like a comet flying through the night sky. FINSTERNIS is a noticeable improvement over "Descension," not in that it has become more sophisticated but rather it has become more startling and haunting like a galaxy of pissed off ghosts have come to attack randomly. Creepy as hell but i'm a glutton for punishment and dig this sort of torturous experience.

DESCENSION is a combination of noise rock in its timbres as the jarring distortions seem utterly chaotic as they swirl around the meditative and psychedelic Krautrock type of ostinato bass that sounds like a stuck record all the while the drum lazily accompanies it. There are also ample amounts of atmospheric background ambience that builds up in violent eddies of sound and somewhat remind me of early cosmic trippers Ash Ra Tempel. The tracks are long and meditative with some like "Woodchurch" ending with wild buzzing sound effects that bleed into the next track. In fact the album almost feels like one long journey into a sonic universe where rules are thrown out the window and only rhythmic flows are constant.

While ALUK TODOLO has become famous for some of their later black metal elements that they added, on this debut they are planted firmly into the strange experimental world of noise rock with psychedelia interspersed throughout ever loose wire guitar effect and chugging bass and drumbeat march. The delivery is almost like some of the more progressive electronic artists like Coil or Throbbing Gristle only delivered with the distorted feedback of rock instrumentation. Almost like a post-rock band that wanted to be a noise rock band so became both instead. This is definitely not active music and is designed for clearing the mind and suspending any expectations. In that regard it's quite effective although perhaps a little too jarring to bring one to Rancho Relaxo and not strong enough in the song structures to initiate any kind of true musical response but certainly unique and intriguing.

3.5 rounded down

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.

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.

Dirty trash can music. Metallic coldness in dark French alleys. Music that makes you fear the dark and what it hides of creatures and mad hatters. This is the album you put on, when you have run out of horror stories to read in front of children. This will scare the living daylights out of them, and maybe land you a day in court as well.

Aluk Todolo are some French dark riders who came into these experimental waters by way of ship from the black metal scene. Whilst leaving a lot of things behind - such as the high pitched screaming vampire vocals, choruses and..... yeah well structures, there is still a good deal of stark black metal mentality about these guys. First of all, the production is raw like an unpeeled potato. Finsternis actually sounds like it was recorded inside a skip - or perhaps on the lower deck of a container-ship. Like I said trash can music.

The music itself trots along like a gothic Frankenstein. It's clumsy, slow as an Alzheimers patient on ice skates, ill-mannered, shrill, reverberating and uncouth - yet somehow this distinguishably bad taste in sonic behaviour manages to come across as something listenable. Hell, I'll even go as far as to say, that this actually is a rather good album. Sure it sounds like music from an Uzbek prison, made by convicts on bad acid with but a few rusty chains and an old broken microphone at their disposal, but it still does what it's supposed to: It frightens you, whilst stirring up bleak and chess-coloured images of what nightmarish brutal and heavy rhythmic noise just may look like.

Finsternis is made up of four "contacts" and one "totality" - whatever that means, but I guess we're dealing with some kind of concept album. The actual word Finsternis means darkness, and to tell you the truth, that is a pretty damn accurate description of the music within. Imagine being led through a couple of old and squeaky houses by a man with cold cold hands - he's breathing heavily, and he wears a lot of heavy jewellery - cling clanging his way through these black rooms with his hands around your waste - he occasionally steps on saws and other such tools that give off these chaotic noises. That's the general feel of this record. It's disturbing and scary like a David Lynch movie, and whilst you are aware of certain give-away horror moments - like the unmelodious guitar wails that sound like robotic cats being slaughtered - you are still on the fence about what kind of emotions to feel. The whole thing feels strangely absurd and disconnected, but it always has you by the throat with those cold hands. It's like being frightened of a shoe because of its placement. Quite bizarre.

If you are on the look out for what strange and terrorizing new musical frontier is being tortured and overstepped at the moment, then I urge you to give these guys a listen. This is not for the faint of heart, but as I said in the beginning of my ramblings: it will sure as hell scare away the snotty kid down the block who's into gangsta rap and likes to throw stones at heavy set people with glasses.

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 ...