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.
