I cannot think of a single artist that is afflicted with such a relentless torrent of inspiration and amazing ideas that a triple album is warranted. Texas's Korperschwache have not changed my opinion on this issue, but they have made a surprising successful, varied (particularly for a noise band with a Holocaust-derived moniker that names songs after H.P. Lovecraft monsters), and listenable effort nonetheless; especially when considering that the band began in 1995 with the intention of producing "blown-out junk noise hell built on the maxim that you can never be too loud or too obnoxious."
Peasant Magik
Korperschwache (which means "organic decay") is essentially the solo project of a fellow named RFK, although he is aided by a frequent female collaborator named Doktor Omega on percussion. RFK is something of an underground institution, as he publishes the long-running e-zine The One True Dead Angel and fronted the now-defunct Autodidact (who have been favorably compared to My Bloody Valentine, Swans, and Skullflower). I have not heard Autodidact yet, but I am intrigued, as RFK's guitar work on this album (despite being deliberately destroyed and buried in noise) occasionally betrays an innovative command of unconventional and dissonant harmony.
Fear The Hex is divided into three (ostensibly) themed albums: Black Canyon Drone, Death Disco, and Dissonance And Submission. Black Canyon Drone is, as expected, largely drone-themed. However, there are several percussive tracks included also (thematic purity is an early casualty).
Korperschwache's source material consists solely of enthusistically mutilated electric guitar sounds. I may be wrong, but I don't think RFK uses a computer for sound manipulation at all. Korperschwache has a very lo-fi aesthetic and RFK's unique sound seems to originate from a mixture of effects pedals and overloaded signals. The multiple tracks of heavily distorted and ruined guitars create a complex rumbling roar, which is well suited for drone music. There is some filler here, but usually (as on "Creeping Interstellar Space") RFK artfully stacks clashing notes together to create some cool oscillations and an atmosphere of vague menace.
Death Disco is the most beat-oriented of the three cassettes and would be uniformly excellent if it weren't for one puzzling stylistic quirk: several of the (surprisingly structured and melodic) songs sound like unfinished sketches of unwritten Jesu tracks ("The White Room," for example). It is maddening and confounding that RFK combined thick, doom-y chord progressions and excellent repetitive, quasi-mechanized beats, then stopped and moved onto the next song. If he had focused on fleshing these tracks out, rather than on assembling three goddamn albums of material, Fear The Hex could have been quite an amazing album. That said, I love Doktor Omega's drums, particularly on the glacially unfolding drone piece "The Soothing Call of Nature's Existential Hum." Actually, that track is excellent all-around; RFK augments his usual low-end avalanche with some psychedelic strangled-sounding weirdness in the upper octaves. It is also worth noting that some of the tracks have rhythms that sound bizarrely Caribbean or Brazilian (albeit slowed-down), which infuses the creeping sludge with a somewhat surreal and playful feel. I think I even heard a bongo on one track.
I am unsure what distinguishing trait Dissonance And Submission is supposed to possess to separate it from the other two cassettes, as it seems to mine the same territory. The opening track ("Targeted For Massive Defoliation") is one of RFK's more successful droning roars and is unique here for having shifting drums that attempt to give the song varying dynamics. Perhaps the drums were added after the guitar in this one instance. I'm not sure if I like this innovation though—I am pretty closed-mindedly infatuated with the relentless, mechanical repetition of the other rhythmic tracks.
Korperschwache generally have a impressively heavy, textured, and unique sound—I found myself enthusiastically getting into this at times. For that I am quite grateful. My walkman broke while I was in NYC this week (during Black Canyon Drone) and I had to scour the city's worst electronics stores to find a new one so I could listen to the rest. Consequently, I would have been apoplectic with rage if this album had not been so frequently compelling. There's way too much material here for any normal person to process and fully enjoy though, and too many prematurely aborted good ideas too. I hope RFK continues to evolve (even after fourteen years) as he has certainly drifted a long way from his original inspirations of Whitehouse and Merzbow. If Korperscwache's next album is shorter, less claustrophobic and space-less, and more adventurous in its departures from the default Korperschwache song structure, I will probably love it. (Fear The Hex is a cassette-only limited edition of 100.)
Samples:
- Creeping Interstellar Xenophobia
- The White Room (is where the beatings take place)
- Targeted For Massive Defoliation (agent orange)
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