Album: … to the slaughter EP
Artist: Satøri
Label: Self-released
Catalogue no: N/A
Tracklist:
1. Cellar
Surgery
2. Red
Mist
3. Ceci
n’est pas un exercice
Satøri is Dave Kirby, and
this project specialises in dark, dense, and noisy blankets of sonic assault,
as evidenced on the Dispøsessiøn album
which I reviewed some time back. This EP, however, has a different flavour to
it and is somewhat quieter, but only by a matter of degrees. It’s still noisy,
but also wanders into dark noise ambient territory. Make no mistake, though,
there’s still enough anger and angst served up here on these three tracks to
power a few hundred homes for several years, but even so it’s no exaggeration
to say that the species of noise here is narrower and more focused. It’s also
laser-sharp, just as capable of cutting deeply, and is uncompromising in its
relentlessness.
‘Cellar Surgery’ cuts to
the chase with a gargantuan rolling and thunderous pounding, above and through
which a bell-like shimmering tone weaves, before a torrential sheet of acidic
static pours down like a solid curtain of white-hot sparks, singeing and
burning. You can feel the physical weight of that background pounding, a leaden
slab of oppressive and immovable darkness hanging menacingly like a dread
harbinger. ‘Red Mist’ begins with distant ghostly shouts, but they’re just a
prelude to a relentless grainy mass intent on bulldozering all in its path. And
while that’s going on one can just about hear other noises going on in the
background, but that wall of noise keeps building and growing, the machine
making the noise an impossible and ungraspable size. The only thing you can do
is hide and hope that it ignores you.
‘Ceci n’est pas un
exercice’ (This is not an Exercise) dispenses with any kind of introductory
passage and just arrives fully formed and blasting away. Grainy, granular,
arcing, and sparking sheet noise, again heavily suggestive of incomprehensible
weight, sprays in all directions, not caring what stands in its way or what
damage it inflicts. It doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a force of
destruction, and merely wants to fulfil its own malign desires.
Three tracks, and three
modes of noisy devastation: if anyone needs a sampler of Satøri’s death-tinged
noise ambient work then this will serve as a fine starter. It isn’t wall noise,
but it is nuanced and varied, suggestive of so much power and devilishness, a
Bosch painting brought to life. There’s so much going on here, it is perhaps
difficult for the casual listener (if there is such a beast for this music) to
grasp that this isn’t noise simply for noise’s sake, but instead a crafted
artefact borne out of art and experience. It’s a virtual environment, where the
imagery is created by the listener, all inspired by the sonic materials. And it
definitely delivers on that score.
Want to hear something
even better? It’s free to download on Bandcamp – so get with it!
Psymon Marshall 2019.
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