Lorenzo
Any band is well within its right to totally twist a set of sounds into something new. This becomes even more pertinent when metal is fused with 'outsider' genres, and little is as thrilling as jazz fusion
NM does that and more on this journey of miasmic droning swirling into lengthy tracks of avant-garde jazz, doom metal, krautrock, and general improvised freedom all expertly conflated into a bizarre compositions that literally live up to the idealism of being mind melting in the truest sense
Michael Mueller
No other way to put it - this is an absolute BEAST of an album.
It sounds like collaboration between Sepultura circa Roots and Sun Ra and his Arkestra out past Saturn, with all manner of psychedelia and middle eastern madness thrown in, too.
There are vocals – from harmonised female to throat singing - but they are more flourish than feature.
Never heard an album quite like this before, and likely won't unless Bjork records an album in Hades. And I've give my right arm to see it played live.
Favorite track: To The Earth: NGANGA - Grand Guérisseur Magique de l’ère Probocène.
Belgium's NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM (aka NNMM) is a community of “cultural engineers” with a variable line-up, mixing drone metal with spiritual free jazz and psychedelic music. The project was initiated in 2018 by multi-instrumentalist Guillaume Cazalet (Czlt, Jenny Torse, Aksu), who brought together veteran saxophonist Jean Jacques Duerinckx (Ze Zorgs) and two drummers, Sebastien Schmit (K-Branding) and Pierre Arese (Aksu). In 2020, Stephane FDL and Lukas Bouchenot took the drums. Reshma Goolamy (bass), Romain Martini (guitar), Alice Thiel (synths, guitar), Joaquin Bermudez (saz, setar), Didié Nietzche (soundscapes) and Leslie V. (black magic scenography) joined in 2019, thus changing the band into a real drone orchestra.
By exploring the evolution of the human species, NEPTUNIAN MAXMALISM question the future of the living on Earth, propitiating a feeling of acceptance for the conclusion of the so called "anthropocene" era and preparing us for the incoming “probocene” era, imagining our planet ruled by superior intelligent elephants after the end of humanity. As Guillaume Cazalet explains, “for certain scientists, if we hadn't rule the Earth, elephants were supposed to be at the top of the pyramid of terrestrial life.”
The ambitious album trilogy of “Éons” is a musical experience of gargantuan proportions where each chapter is part of a fascinating ritual, a cosmic mass of light and darkness recalling the works of SUNN O))), EARTH, ALUK TODOLO, ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE, SWANS, MOTORPSYCHO, SUN RA and the late JOHN COLTRANE.
The intoxicating bacchanal starts with “To The Earth (Aker Hu Benben)”, a heavy tribal music affair influenced by stoner metal, noise rock and free jazz. “It's a balance between sacred and profane, and resumes lots of human feelings or their consequences, such as love, war, hate, ritual dance, transmutation, strength, feminine/masculine juxtaposition, etc,”, says Cazalet.
With “To The Moon (Heka Khaibit Sekhem)” the band opts for a slightly different approach, surrealistic yet brutal, occasionally steering towards black-doom metal. Cazalet: “Here the rhythm section plays an important role, fueled by an obscure power that plunges the listener into a magic, occult trance; this album is characterized by shamanic invocations and summonings of the ancients by using animal-like growls and the homo-sapiens' proto-language as reconstructed by Pierre Lanchantin, an English researcher/archeologist from the University of Cambridge.”
The third and final chapter encompasses the interstellar meditations of “To The Sun (Ânkh Maât Sia)”, described by Cazalet as a solar drone opera: “We worked on the power of frequencies and tonality, chthonian deep vibrations and iridescent high lights by using huge amplified baritone sax and guitars, spectral soundscapes, antic cinematographic views and tribal percussions.”
Wrapped in a phantasmagoric painting by Japanese master Kaneko Tomiyuki, NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM's “Éons” is with no doubt the quintessential mystical and psychedelic journey of 2020.
credits
released June 26, 2020
"Éons" line-up:
Guillaume Cazalet (Czlt) ::: Amplified bass and barytone guitar, bow, sitar, flute, trumpet & vocals
Jean Jacques Duerinckx ::: Amplified saxophone barytone and sopranino
Sebastien Schmit ::: Drums, percussions, gongs, vocals
Pierre Arese ::: Drums, percussions
Recorded by Guillaume Cazalet, with the help of Jean Jacques Duerinckx at HS63, Brussels, March 2018. Mixed and mastered by Guillaume Cazalet at Homo Sensibilis Sounds studio, Brussels, June 2018
take canterbury scene bands like Soft Machine or Egg, along with math rock bands like Don Caballero doing a fusion with black metal, outer dimensional shoober420
What I like the most about this album is that it seems to be more riff-oriented and memorable compared to their earlier albums which were chock-full of crazy dissonant riffage but their songs often meandered or lacked any distinct progression. That is not to say that this this album is any less dense, but is certainly a little catchier, here and there. As always with Ulcerate, their music rewards repeated listening while clearly retaining the tragic, emotional feeling the band is known for. Lefteris Kefalas
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