(4AD)
At one point on Brando, the opening
track from Soused,
Scott Walkers' unique and heavy-hearted croon infers that 'A
beating would do me the world of good' alongside a beat made from
the lashings of a whip. It's a line that drips of violence and
masochism and stands as a good warning of the sonic punishment that
you can hear over over the album's fifty minutes.
Soused is a collaboration
between former pop star and now Avant-Garde artist Scott Walker and
earth-shattering drone worshippers Sunn O))). The drone group had
sought out Scott Walker for their 2009 album Monoliths &
Dimensions (which seemed to
incorporate disparate arrangements and instrumentation one of Scott's
albums) but conflicting schedules got in the way. Walker since
wrote some material with the band in mind and when they finally got
together they recorded it over a week. It shows through the album, it
lacks in detail but makes up for it with a rawer immediacy.
Brando's first thirty seconds make you
wonder just what you've gotten yourself into. High synthesizer's ring
out over guitar lead melodies like some dreamy ballad from an
eighties David Lynch film. It then falls to silence before those
familiar heavy waves of drone pile in over a one note bass pulse and
that whip lash beat. Scott Walker's voice carries a horror like a man
brought to the edge of sanity by some horrific, unspeakable
experience. At this point it become clear whether you will become
enraptured or repulsed by the mesmeric dark guitars and vivid,
haunted scenes that form the core of Soused.
As much as Scott Walker has gained a
reputation as a meticulous, serious artist punching away slabs of
meat as he hides away recording his albums, his music does a have a
humorous and playful side that often come out through his use of
language with lines like 'Leaping like a river dancer's nuts'
in the Sabbath like proto-metal of Bull. Other tracks give themselves
up completely to painting a picture with only a black and grey colour
palette. The biblical Herod 2014 repeats a haunting mantra, 'She's
hidden her babies away' over slow ghostly moans that carry the
promise of a forthcoming terror. The beat-less track builds with what
sounds like squealing, pained horn sounds and industrial sounds of
clattering, shuffling machinery with colossal doom riffs that create
unease without a drumbeat to hang on to.
Fetish begins with Walker's voice in
near silence, punctuated with sharp staccato jabs that could have
come from an old film's soundtrack paying homage to Psycho's
shower scene. Dissonant and jagged art rock riffs and harsh
screeching horns pick up the track as drums crash and tumble in a
perfect exercise in loud and quiet dynamics as the song writing seems
to tell a story in itself. Lullaby is a haunting drifting ending to
Soused, more likely to inspire hellish nightmares if listened
to before bedtime as it's quiet lulls are split between harsh
dissonance and Walker's tortured wails.
In many ways this is one of the most
accessible records in both Walker's and Sunn O)))'s recent output as
they are both confined to a more rigid rock band set up. Sunn O)))'s
heavy drones a pinned to drumbeats and Scott uses a smaller range of
sounds to complements his twisted narratives. It's still alienating
listen for the uninitiated, but for those who like their music with
an undercurrent of horror this may well be a good introduction for
these artists who exist at the far reaches of experimental rock music
as Soused is a focused and compelling for those who can take
the beating.
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