Niku Daruma - She Gets What She Wants.

NikuDaruma – She Gets What She Wants – Black Ring Rituals – CD/Tape/Download – 2019.

Tracklist.

     1.    Who’s Counting? (Any Sharp Object).

     2.    Who’s Counting? ( Quick, precise movements.)

     3.    Who’s Counting ( Mouth to Wound)

     4.    Body’s Slick and Crimson.

     5.    Unrecognizable Faces.

     6.    Joyful Permanent Smiles.

     7.    Please Guide Us Home.

The intensity of the recent split with Goreshit on Dough Girl made Niku Daruma one of my favourite current day, noise acts, I feel the need to investigate Niku Daruma’s work even further and She Gets What She Wants is one of their most recent releases on Black Ring Rituals.

The album begins with some raw, sharp displays of noise, there is some vocal interlude, but this is spoken and to the point which continues into the second movement of Who’s Counting only to become more explosive, I feel the sheer extremity of this release more so than the other Daruma stuff that I have heard. The three Who’s Counting’s are impressive stripped back displays of pure Harsh Noise that seem destined to find new ways to up the intensity. The third is the longest, this really drops to quiet crackles and splutters, before building to huge eruptions of noise – there are more cut up vocals that sound warped and depraved.

Body’s Slick and Crimson used a more direct vocal that loses the plot immediately, backed by the noise, this is unnerving and direct; it is screamed rather than spoken as before and sounds like torture – I feel this is Niku Daruma in full throttle. Unrecognizable Faces seems to carry on the noise of Body’s Slick and build into bigger, layered displays of pained noise, the sound becomes busier and massive in comparison to the earlier tracks, this is violent Power Electronics that likes to die by pulling back to farting hums and reigniting itself with passages of sharp sound abuse.

Further abuse and rage forms Joyful Permanent Smiles, I like the progression from Harsh Noise to PE that occurs throughout the later tracks. The vocals are just enraged screams that are surrounded by scraping rises and sudden drops in sound – this leads to a wailing, upset vocal that is psychotic and disturbing. The final track builds tornados of sharp cut sound that seem to illustrate the bands themes of violence and conflict perfectly, this eventually pulls into a deeper vortex of noise and makes for a dramatic finale.  

I think Niku Daruma’s work is something of a knife to the face where modern Harsh Noise/PE is concerned and as new acts go, they remain amongst my top cards, I cannot express my love and support for this project enough.

Choppy Noodles 2019.