Monday 14 May 2007

ROTHKO – A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF CONFLICT (BAD HAND RECORDS)


ROTHKO – A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF CONFLICT (BAD HAND RECORDS)

With a title that comes not suggesting the best of times Rothko surge through another triumphant and flattening release with this three song offering marking new adventures into sonic exploration and a new side of ambient drone that is eventually pierced by the classic Rothko bass orchestration.

It starts out sounding like a Far Eastern tinged cover of the opening of Alien, the creeping scary unveiling and lifting of life in space where nobody can hear you scream and the atmosphere is so thick that it can crush your skull. This sound is the personification of an argument proving how apt the title of the release is. A little violin and bass drops later the song still has not eased off in the least.

There is a darkly slow industrial and futuristic feel to this collection, not in any horrible goth or Nine Inch Nails sense more in the towering atmospherics that accompanied the fractured skyline of Blade Runner. It feels like a real departure and shock to the senses compared to the usual bass heavy assault that usually accompanies a Rothko release.

With a sound that echoes as if recorded under sea this is akin to the musical equivalent of stepping into a sensory deprivation tank.

Thesaurus: whale.

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