Ramleh-
A Return to Slavery. Harbinger Sound – 2017 – LP – Harbinger 161-
Personnel:
Gary Mundy and Jerome Clegg.
Tracklisting
A Return to Slavery
Nordhausen
New Force
Phenol
Squassation
Prossneck
The Hand of Glory (PT. 1)
The Hand of Glory (PT.2)
Formed in 1982 Ramleh are one
of the key pioneers of the early UK Power Electronics scene. They initially combined
blunt subject matter and artwork: their sound has a layered psychedelia adding
confusion and distortion. Intensified emotion is buried into everything they
do, this is also something that seemed prominent in the work of several Broken
Flag artists. Ramleh has always seemed to aim to unsettle the listener
emotionally, especially in their live approach, this was still very evident
when I saw them several years ago.
A Return to Slavery is one of
many recent reissues of early 80s Ramleh material originally from their early days
on their own Broken Flag label. Originally recorded in 1983 as a split album
with Philip Best’s Libertarian Recordings project. It now has The Hand of Glory
material on the B-side to replace it, now making this a complete Ramleh
release. The Black and White cover artwork shows a body being dissected, framed
in the classic Broken Flag visual layout.
The Return to Slavery side
revels in combinations of low end and high-pitched sounds while Gary Mundy and Jerome
Clegg scream out shards of agonised vocal noise. Bleak samples are coupled with
rumbling electronics as sharp frequencies dissect everything. Their use of sounds will often combine around
four elements and suddenly drop down to two and let them linger as if to allow
for the vocal noise to have an intensified effect. Oddly, there is still a
warmth to the sound, cold starkness wasn’t really Ramleh’s thing; the Ramleh
approach is very different to other pioneers of the time. The vocals radiate sadness,
hurt and pain; like the artwork, it further conceptualises the overall concept.
Recorded four months later, The
Hand of Glory is a denser recording that is even bleaker than A Return to
Slavery. Warbling psychedelic electronics and sharp wailing noises build up to continually
shove the vocals into the background as electronics eventually oscillate and
squeal over them. However, as the record progresses the defiant vocal shoots to
the forefront and echo around the proceedings.
In one of Facebook’s many Power
Electronics/Death Industrial groups, one of Ramleh’s later releases (Hole in
the Heart) was recently listed as an essential Death Industrial recording. At first,
I was confused by this, but on the Return to Slavery release, there are key
essential sounds in place that would later come to fruition as an influence on
other artists of that genre such as infected keyboards, pained vocals, dramatic
shifts between full and minimal sound with over the top repetition.
Ramleh continue to push new
boundaries with their Noise and guitar based work, particularly the recent
Circle Time album. Their most recent Power Electronics album 2009’s Valediction
along with Mundy’s recently prolific work as Kleistwahr continues to develop
and intensify the Ramleh sound of old. However, a Return to Slavery serves as
an important document in noise history and cements Ramleh’s importance as true innovators
and a continued force.
Choppy Noodles 2017
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