Disgusting Cathedral – Besieged Defenders

 

Disgusting Cathedral – Besieged Defenders – Download – 2021.

https://disgustingcathedral.bandcamp.com/album/besieged-defenders-2

I feel like watching the film – ‘A Chinese Ghost Story’ tonight, playing Besieged Defenders, the new album by Disgusting Cathedral reminds me of that film in parts. This is described as Dungeon Synth, but I feel it is Dr.Age in his synthesizer fun element. He uses a lot of quirky sounds and home-made circuit devices that echo his work in the duo Isn’tses and Cementimental - this is what I associate with Dr.Age, a key player in quirkier, glitched electronics within the UK. In some ways if you can imagine members of SMEGMA had children, left them somewhere with their stash and forgot about them - you’d have Isn’tses.

The sound of the album uses keyboards in the quirky, space like sense mixed in with a mournful, funeral style. What I am going to focus on is that I like to research my noise/PE history from time to time to widen my historical knowledge of the genre. The Dungeon Synth sound is hailed as coming from a range of artists including Burzum being its key influences. This kind of mournful and tinkering synthesizer usage goes right back to the 80s, buried within some later 80s Power Electronics and Industrial acts that leaned a little too far to the right. Dr.Age is seen as a well-known anarchist leaning artist within his commentaries and personal conversations that I have had with him. From knowing him, I see this as taking back those elements from various factions and going somewhere else with it, a reclamation of sound of sorts.

The electronics go screwy, melting down as they twist and bend in all directions – not staying in one place for too long. Shifts back into mournful, meditative territory are frequent. I like this, a good recording that truly reflects the playful, humorous character and intentions of its’ creator.

Coventry Soul 2021