Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Various Artists – Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque: a Tribute to Edgar Allan Poe (Notariqon)

Posted: 20 Sep 2009 05:04 PM PDT

tales

American writer Edgar Allan Poe died 160 years ago, and yet his stories are still in print. He is often credited as the inventor of the detective story, and can certainly be counted as one of the first horror writers. We might even call him the patron saint of Goth. His work continues to inspire new adaptations: apparently Sylvester Stallone is working on a Poe biopic due out in 2011 (I can hardly wait).

And now we have Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque: a Tribute to Edgar Allan Poe on German netlabel Notariqon. This collection features 15 tracks ranging from neofolk to dark ambient, power electronics to noise. Art Abscons opens proceedings with ‘A Dream Within a Dream’, which features his trademark sonorous vocals and crystalline acoustic guitar, with Darklily guesting on backing vox. ‘The House of Usher’ is a beautiful slice of cinematic ambience, with deep synth strings, echoing percussion and sampled voices from German duo Phalanx feat the White Rabbit. This segues seamlessly into ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue’ where Iris Traumann adds a thumping house beat and ethereal vocals to take this atmospheric piece into club-friendly territory. ‘King Pest’ by Hong 8 is like Nick Cave backed by Throbbing Gristle – an attractive or alarming proposition, depending upon your point of view. And speaking of aural confrontation, the final two tracks by Ezcaton and Vulgar Disease represent a sonic equivalent of ‘Storms of Fate’ – turn the volume down before you play these two, or you’ll blow your speakers.

Available for free download from Notariqon here.

Ewan Burke

Various Artists – Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque: a Tribute to Edgar Allan Poe (Notariqon) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.

Posthuman – Monsters & Vortices EP (B12)

Posted: 20 Sep 2009 02:42 PM PDT

Posthuman

Manchester born and now London-based, cousins Richard Bevan and Josh Doherty have been making music together as Posthuman for around a decade, a period during which they’ve managed to release three albums as well as several EPs, their beginning efforts aided by Manchester’s Skam label. While Posthuman’s preceding 2006 album ‘The People’s Republic’ on the duo’s own Seed label saw them venturing further into post-rock and instrumental elements, this latest four track 12" EP ‘Monsters & Vortices’, their first for B12, represents a considerably different beast, with the contents leaning predominantly towards dark, stripped down techno. ‘Krill’ opens proceedings here with its sights placed firmly in buzzing, android techno territory akin to one of Audion’s dark assembly-line expeditions as it fuses saw-toothed analogue synth rave riffs to razor-sharp snare programming and all manner of menacing ambient pads.

While the former track is easily the most ferocious moment on offer here, ‘Callisto’ manages to give it a pretty good run for its money, sending jacking Stanley knife hi-hats sliding over an ominous backdrop of lurking sub-bass pads, factory sweeps and dark, gothy synth riffs that manage to carry more than a stray hint of Kill Memory Crash’s dark Euro-EBM leanings. If things are getting a little too gritty at this point, ‘Monsters Exist’ sees things getting a little more woozy and hypnotic, with blurry dub-techno elements competing for space with crisp, house-loaded rhythms – though tellingly, the faint edge of menace is never really far away, with the distant roar of what sounds like battling monsters leaking into the mix at points. It’s closing track ‘The Karman Vortices’ that really provides the biggest surprise here though, with the duo eschewing dancefloor-centric techno influences in favour of contemplative downbeat ambience, and indeed it clearly shows that it’s anyone’s question as to where Posthuman will venture next. There’s also an additional reworking of the same track by Bevan under his Digitonal alias included with the digital download version of this EP, making this another impressive offering from the ever unpredictable Posthuman that’s well worth investigation.

Chris Downton

Posthuman – Monsters & Vortices EP (B12) is a post from: Cyclic Defrost Magazine.