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LP
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BLACKEST 070LP
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Following a trio of sprawling, planet-gargling double-LPs, 2013's self-titled LP on Skrammel, and Second Launch (BLACKEST 033LP, 2015) and Eclipsed (BLACKEST 048LP, 2017) on Blackest Ever Black, Bremen -- Jonas Tiljander and Lanchy, previously best known for their contributions to Brainbombs' long rap sheet of genius-and-brutality, but latterly exponents of a rarefied cosmic melancholy -- return with Enter Silence, their most concise, and powerful, album to date. Once again, the Uppsala multi-instrumentalists combine elements of trogged-out psychedelic rock with a deadly serious Arctic minimalism and weeping modal improvisations that owe more to the outer limits of jazz and burnt-out free music from Japan. It's connoisseur's space music, grown-up and grievously honed; outwardly inclined towards the epic but studded with details that reward attention and introspection. There's always been a strong undercurrent of sadness animating Bremen's work, and that existential burden is present and correct on Enter Silence, culminating in the all-out cosmic anguish of "Palladium". Even "The Middle Section", whose ragged chords are nothing if not the sound of optimism and defiance, sounds like it's navigating some kind of unsayable trauma. But this band has always allowed plenty of room for bonehead slash-and-burn as well: see here especially the Stoogeian/39 Clocks-ish rock'n'roll of "Aimless Cruising", and the pulpy quasi-cinematic tension of "Sinister", or the brilliant "Too Cold For Your Eyes", a blast of voidal motorik that sounds like a cranked-up Clean. It's a cold, cold world out there.
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2LP
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BLACKEST 048LP
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Bremen return with Eclipsed, a double LP of glacial electronics, strung-out drone-punk, and smoldering space-rock minimalism. Following the release of their self-titled debut on Skrammel in 2013, the Swedish duo of Jonas Tiljander (Brainbombs) and Lanchy Orre (Brainbombs, Totalitär) joined the Blackest Ever Black fold in 2014 with Second Launch (BLACKEST 033LP). If the mood of that record was brooding and stygian, its monochord intensity unfaltering, then Eclipsed, this equally sprawling set, could be construed as a warmer, more dynamic, and variegated offering. Perhaps. There are still passages that are heavier than a death in the family. Still a staunch obsession with the consciousness-altering power of repetition. The band's points of departure are specific: a particular organ sound from J. A. Seazer's 1970s recordings, the squalid alien guitar tone of Chrome, the cranked psychic roar-out riffage of Hawkwind, the melancholic mode of Swedish jazz pianist Jan Johansson, minimalism from La Monte Young to Eleh, "cold '80s electronic sound," and sloppy, lo-fi psychedelic rock from the likes of Pärson Sound and Träd, Gräs och Stenar. Tiljander's icily poised synth and organ drones and the grieving cosmic howl of Orre's guitar dominate the landscape, but their instrumental palette has also expanded to include various percussion treatments, saxophone, strings, and dissolved vocal fragments. Their exploratory jamming, overdubbing, and dub-savvy mixing yields a music of unbelievable eloquence and physicality. Eclipsed is another masterpiece of black hole psychedelia from one of the greatest underground rock 'n' roll units on the planet. No serious void-worshipper's collection is right without it. All songs by Orre/Tiljander. Mastered by Tomas Bodén. Cut by Noel Summerville. Pressed at Optimal. Housed in gatefold sleeve. Includes MP3/FLAC download code.
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2LP
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BLACKEST 033LP
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Mind-shattering double LP of dysphoric space-rock minimalism from two luminaries of the Swedish punk underground. Second Launch follows Bremen's self-titled debut of 2013 and comprises 11 controlled improvisations, reinforced with overdubs, that take clear inspiration from the dark side of Kraut and progressive rock, early electronic and drone music, while also owing something to the fathomlessly bleak interior landscapes conjured by Nico/Cale on The Marble Index and Desertshore. The complex dialogue between Lanchy Orre's guitar and Jonas Tiljander's organ, by turns pensive and combative, bound up with their mastery of reverb and feedback, is the focal point of the record; supplemented with drums and sparingly-deployed analog synthesizer tones to evoke nothing less than the vast emptiness of outer space and the obliteration of all meaning and identity in the face of it. From the full-throttle motorik and bonehead repetitions of "Sweepers" and "Entering Phase Two" (echoes of Tiljander and Orre's alma mater, Brainbombs) to the deep astral psychedelia of "Static Interferences," via the mournful Northern European ambience of "Walking the Skies," the rolling thunder of "They Were Drifting," and the poignant, star-gazing blues of "Hollow Wave," Second Launch charts impossible gradients in its search for answers to the oldest questions of all. Gatefold sleeve. Last copies...
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