http://www.vitalweekly.net/1203.htmlBLOOD RHYTHMS - CIVIL WAR (LP + book by No Part of It)
Holy shit. This album is intense. I've listened several times over, and find several things about it fascinating. Compositionally, it packs a lot into a short amount of time. As a complete experience from start to finish, "Civil War" is remarkably well constructed and compelling. It's sonically deep and detailed, compositionally varied and skillful. Out loud, it's a burner... on headphones, it's a world to sink into and admire the project's instigator Arvo Zylo's studio mastery.
Understand that I'm not generally a fan of power electronics. While some people surely do it well and have made its tropes their own (Pharmakon is far and away the best going right now, but also Ramleh, Bloodyminded, probably a couple others), it seems hopelessly anachronistic as a genre. At PE's inception in the early 80s, it made sense a response to Thatcher and Reagan, the rise of the Christian right, popular nostalgia for a white-washed 1950s, economic polarization and racial tension, punk and post-punk giving way to corporate synth-pop... white dudes screaming about transgression had a particular place as a micro-sub-genre of industrial noise. In the 21st century, power electronics has been embraced by non-ironic right-wing edgelords who think that being aggressively vague about taboo subjects is the same as having something to say about them. For the most part, this crap is as provocative as a wilted salad. Blood Rhythms, however, is power-electronics that rises above genre. Not only is each song a self-contained unit full of depth, space and drama, but "Civil War" also succeeds as a cycle of songs that grows stronger in sequence, a single album-length statement that makes deliberate use of every minute of its run time.
For sure, Zylo does shout over feedback (such is power electronics), but he also builds a uniquely uncomfortable tension with jarring juxtapositions and a wide range of compositional ideas. The first side begins with "Closure" (har har), an elegy for reeds (baritone sax? bass clarinet?) around which weave multiple whispered vocal lines and crumbling close-mic'd percussive rattle. "Sick Skin" is a Prurient-ish feedback shriek, the most genre-representative thing on the album, but noteworthy for how Zylo spaces component sounds around the stereo field to give an impression of depth and motion. It's followed by the mournful growl of "Locked Away", an ugly grunt of self-laceration set to mournful reeds and layers of noise that shift steadily sideways with textures that change subtly as new elements are brought in and out. At one notable moment on "The Face", I audibly gasped when the introductory passage of nervous industrial sequencers slams against a mountain-sized brass section. Blammo! As the song builds, a howl of gray shrieking despair becomes a wall of pummeling acoustic drums, reminding me of Taiko drumming or Crash Worship. The album ends with a punishingly bleak two-part blurgh called "Alchemy + Grief", which has Zylo exhuming his voice from some buried brain horror as a steady roll of beatless metal-sheering percussion amps up the anxiety. Instead of catharsis, "Civil War" simply ends, dropping the listener callously off a cliff.
Zylo is the main voice of Blood Rhythms, but on "Civil War" he's joined by Dave Phillips (of Schimpfluch), Dan Burke (Illusion of Safety), Wyatt Howland (Skin Graft), Mike Weis (Zelienople) and other players. The LP comes in a gatefold sleeve with a 44 page art book. (HS)
––– Address:
https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/
