Kevlar - Criteria

 

Kevlar – Criteria – Cassette/LP/DVDr/Pal – Unrest33 - 2015.

https://kampfunrest.bandcamp.com/music

https://www.facebook.com/people/Kevlar/100063614945240/

https://soundcloud.com/kevlar-unit

Criteria A :

        I.      Milieu Control.

        II.     Mystical Manipulation.

        III.   The Demand for Purity.

        IV.   Confession.

Criteria B:

        V.    Sacred Science.

        VI.   Loading The Language.

        VII.                Doctrine Over Person.

        VIII.               Dispensing Of Existence.

Kevlar is a very tough synthetic fibre used in the making of bulletproof vests; it is also the name of this present-day UK based Power Electronics project. One of the members also did the project Kontinent for a time. Kevlar was a duo and is now one person, they have done 5 releases over the years on Unrest since their formation in 2010.  Kevlar played three of the four United Forces of Industrial that Unrest hosted in London as well as gigs around the UK and Europe. Criteria was their 2nd release after Alpha Strife in 2014.

The first side of Criteria rumbles into action as glitching, hissing distortion and muffled field recordings build the sound of Milieu Control, this rumbles away in the background for a time until Mystical Manipulation barges in with rumbling bass, various drones, waves of distortion and humming weave together to make a tense, compressed sound. Restrained feedback screeches into this before the vocal kicks in, the sound intensifies into a heavy Power Electronics assault. The battering that is caused by the choppy distortion is impressive feeling like a Jetstream of sound being continually cut into, bashed metal also adds to the overall choppiness.

Low, pulsing drones move into The Demand for Purity, the sound repeats itself as another drone moves across it creating two opposing sounds. Both noises seem to do their thing and ignore each other, creating a strong tension until only one of them is left. Small sounds of electronics seem to fiddle around, until a deep bass drone is hit upon, this forms the core sound of Confession. Distortion crackles across the drone as others enter the sound periodically. Each sound has its own movement and all of them move along together providing subtle shifts of texture within the track. A clear electronic pulsation ends the track.

The second side of Criteria takes an instantly aggressive tone as wall like noise is punctuated with howling blasts and possibly religious vocal samples sound desperate as they are buried within the storm of rumbling noise that is Sacred Science. Death like drones bark out the base of Loading the Language, dense, overdriving bass builds thick waves to back the drones. The tension becomes warfare as each sound changes their prominence in the full sound, different shifts in the mix make massive movements within each track.

Things drop right down as small noises interact for Doctrine Over Person raising the sound levels as each element of the sound begins to find its feet. A vocal joins in to take charge, it is warbled through effects making it a voice noise. The bass deepens, making the sound’s brutality clearer through the slow simmering rage. Dispensing of Existence starts off as gloomy atmospherics cut into through fractured crackling, a vocal is buried within the mix as the cracking noises and eerie sounds fight it out. The vocal shout emerges and sinks in a continual cycle through and into the noise. Lines of feedback cut into the work, chopping it into collaged sections, very disruptive stuff.

Criteria very effectively holds noise back to intensify it, using the mix to do this. As the tension is released slightly it makes the sound shout out. In my opinion, Unrest released a lot of pissed off, simmering Industrial and Power Electronics that brooded at and menaced the listener, using a variety of different ways to create and exploit tensions of sound. Shift, Soft Option Killing and Kevlar do this best. My online wheeler dealing led me to Criteria last month and I am glad I got this. Another Unrest gem unearthed and a great project becomes more apparent.

Nothing and Nobody 2024.