Artist: It-Clings vs Pneumatic
Detach
Album: The All Too Logical Descent
Into Madness
Year: 2007
Line-up: It-Clings (Squid) – words
Pneumatic Detach (Justin Brink) –
music and programming
Label: Bugs Crawling Out of People
”These texts contain
the raving confessions of necessary evil. What you are about to hear
is unpleasant, and unsavioury, these deeds and thoughts come from
what people call a degenerate mind, a mind that is twisted and full
of filth and rage.”
- It-Clings
I have previously mentioned my habit of
occasionally picking up records quite randomly based on some minor
detail about the record (be it the cover art, the name of the artist
or the album or the line-up on the album). On the other hand, I find
certain subgenres of music so intriguing to a level where I use the
vast amount of information provided by the internet to seek out
records of various subgenre. One of those very specific subgenres of
music that has been fascinating me for a long time, is spoken word.
And I am not referring to albums which consist primarily of speech
such as recorded stand-up shows, readings of poems or other
literature, radio broadcasts, interviews et cetera. The
records which I am after are those of which are the marriages between
spoken word performances and music. Normally, these are projects
where a musician and a writer come together to create an original
work.
I remember a couple
of years ago I was going through the catalogue of Ad Noisem (a
Berlin-based record label and a distribution channel for in-house and
other labels' releases). They have kindly catalogued their releases
by genre and luckily they have listed spoken word records there.
Thus, I checked out the few records which had this genre tag and came
across the album of today's post which masterfully named The All Too
Logical Descent Into Madness by It-Clings vs Pneumatic Detach. Maybe
the spoken word genre does not interest you to an extent which it
does me but certainly the title of the record will catch your
attention. Let me assure you that you are not likely to come across
any record quite like The All Too Logical Descent Into Madness any
time soon. The album is a collaborative effort of It-Clings, an angry
Canadian spoken wordcore artist titling himself as ”rock n' roll
supergod It-clings, Kings of the Jews, Saviour of all mankind” who
does not write poetry but rants which criticize everything and
everybody, and Pneumatic Detach, a one-man project of Justin Brink
who works on an Industrial sub-genre called Power Noise, where thick
and harsh rhythms are mixed with electro-industrial noise.
As you might have
expected The All Too Logical Descent Into Madness is not your regular
cup of tea; as a matter of fact I would goes as far as calling this
album one the most bat-shit crazy and intense albums – and coming
from me that is saying a lot. Musically, this album represents the
subgenre of Industrial, Power Noise also known as Rhythmic Noise
which is a fusion between noise music and various styles of
electronic dance music. Pneumatic Detach summons up distorted noises,
drones and resonances to create either more abstract dark
ambient-like soundscapes or electronic rhythms parts which are
occasionally very catchy and even danceable. All potential melodies
are here secondary to the rhythmic patterns and ambient soundscapes
but at time one can recognise something reminiscent to riffs
constructed of the noise rhythms. Surprisingly enough, every time I
play this record I find myself enjoying the music quite a bit even
though I am not a huge fan of either noise music or industrial music.
The music on The All Too Logical Descent Into Madness is just so
otherworldly, twisted, weird and yet enthralling that I cannot help
but to feel deeply absorbed by it.
The one element
which sets The All Too Logical Descent Into Madness apart from every
other album I have ever listened to and makes it a true and unique
aural obscurity is certainly the texts provided by It-Clings. Try to
imagine the iconic American stand-up comedian Bill Hicks and the
psychopaths of the psychological thrillers such as Se7en, The Silence
of the Lambs and the Saw franchise coming together to share their
view on life and people and you get a picture what is in store for
you. The maniacal rants of It-Clings revolve around cynical and
nihilistic views on modern society and on the people who inhabit it.
As the album progresses these rants develop more into disturbing
rambles – as the title of the album suggests - about brutal
violence and both physical and mental pain afflicted to people. The
second half immerses itself almost like in a torture pornoesque tales
and while that not might definitely for everyone, the first half of
the album has actually very interesting and sharp observations about
modern society and life. I personally find both the social commentary
and gorno stuff fascinating.
So if you feel bold
enough and wish to take a glimpse of the darker side of human nature,
buckle your seat belt and take a wild ride to the sonic mayhem of
Pneumatic Detach and the delirious rants of It-Clings. Those who wish
to take a sneak peak of what they are getting themselves into, check
out the album opener Necessary Evil:
Written
by Παναγιωτιης
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