Thursday, April 30, 2009

Amok Pe Current 93 - Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain [Dutro 2009]


After a three-year hiatus David Tibet and his malevolent regiment have returned to sustain the kingdom of Current 93 with the potent, poetic and poignant Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain. Under the guise of Anok Pe Current 93, Tibet’s acute collaborative drive has reached its zenith—Nurse With Wound producers Steven Stapleton and Andrew Liles are back and joined by 12-string virtuoso James Blackshaw, out-percussionist Alex Neilson, guitarist Matt Sweeney, Baby Dee and strangely enough Andrew W.K., which is just the tip of the iceberg.

With Aleph, Tibet’s unmistakable lyricism is another labyrinth of obscure and phantasmagoric Aleister Crowley inspired prose, akin to the delirious monologues of Dostoevsky’s morally wounded Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment and Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov. Enigmatic references of Adam, Aleph, murder and Docetic Mountains reiterate with fervor to the point of obsession.

James Blackshaw’s finger-picking is the perfect backdrop for Tibet’s antediluvian folk songs. However, some of the heavier guitar work fueled by repetitive stoner riffs and 70’s hard rock solos fail to uphold the austere atmosphere. Where electric instruments fail, the piano, viola and cello, along with the onslaught of cryptic Nurse With Wound effects and samples retains the feverish pulse.

The descent into the depths of darkness begins with the sludgy epic “Invocation of Almost”, where Tibet’s fixation with murder twirls around an unhurried tempo similar to Chris Haikus’ hypnotic rhythms in Sleep and Om. The drones of “Poppyskins” unlock a third-eye pried open by the obvious abuse of drugs till dawn. Drug reverberations continue as Tibet recalls his acid trip of “26 April 2007” by reciting, “my back was attacked by hallucinatory mountains, where teeth were possessed by demons and devils and I was by myself and of myself, just me and bones and thoughts”.

Many of Aleph’s pieces are expanded and reshaped works from Amok Pe’s first EP, 2008’s stunning Birth Canal Blues. Like the preceding EP, Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain might not be as sinister or out-there as I Have a Special Plan for This World or the repetitive and operatic perfection of “Where the Long Shadows Fall”, yet it does drip colorfully from Tibet’s constantly expanding palette.

Bardos Freedoom

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