Charalambides / Pocahaunted – Bored Fortress split 7” (Not Not Fun)

(DISCLAIMER: I don’t actually own a hard copy of this - I came across it on thee interweb. I won’t post the tracks, as giving away the entirety of a recently released record seems like poor form. But, as is inevitably the way with this sort of nonsense, it was issued as part of a monthly singles club scheme to which entry is now closed, thus already rendering it unavailable for us mere mortals to legitimately purchase, so if you’re interested in hearing it, drop me a line.)

As you may have gathered, I’ve been pretty down on the whole noise/psyche/drone/“kneel-core” (gotta love that phrase) world over the past year or two. As the initial euphoria surrounding the discovery of such goings-on wore off and my priorities in life and music began to change, I have gradually come to the conclusion that a lot of this stuff is lazy, self-regarding, emotionally deadening or actively negative, often relying on phony mystique and audience projection to disguise a dire lack of content, and, well, basically it does nothing for me, a few key artists aside. On paper, the bits of info I’ve picked up on Pocahaunted would seem to suggest that they are a textbook example of a shitty, arrogant psyche-noise band. Witness a reliance on ‘primitive’, pedal-based electronics jams, a goofy name and thoughtless adoption of Native American imagery, a bewildering array of limited-to-nothing self-released tapes and ‘artyfacts’ cut with guest appearances by everyone under the sun of this particular scene, obligatory schmoozing with Thurston, subsequent hype from all the usual subterranean suspects, and so forth.

But the proof is in the pudding as they say, and thus I’m delighted to report that the Pocahaunted side of this single is actually really, really good, and a great reminder of the essential qualities that this kind of music can embody when it puts in the effort. Entitled ‘Time Fist’, it’s built around some genuinely eerie Double Leopards-esque cosmic horror atmospherics, looped vocal echo and and slooooow, carefully orchestrated knob-twisting, backed by a thick mist of warm fuzz hovering across the horizon. Then, a couple of minutes in, crisp bass and drums enter, playing a straight up space-rock groove that could have been sampled off a Loop record. It’s a daring decision for a band like this to add such a linear rhythm to their strictly chaotic proceedings, but it turns out to be an inspired one, as the two elements fuse perfectly into a mighty fine exercise in enveloping hypnosis. So congrats to Pocahaunted for taking a chance and hitting the psychedelic bullseye, this time at least. In fact I wish it went on for longer, and how many recent free-form pedal-murk excursions can you honestly say that about? Top stuff indeed, and it was nice of them to give my shitty preconceptions a good kicking too.

Charalambides were of course the act that suckered me into listening to this thing though, and whilst their tune here is very much the slighter contribution, we always enjoy a nice bit of understatement around here, so that’s no criticism. Maybe this is though, in part: ‘Memory’ is another brittle, anxious folk mutation much in the spirit of last year’s ‘Likeness’ album, hanging more toward the chilly, formal end of currently hip British folk than the multi-faceted expression allowed by American traditions. So you know what to expect by now, I’m sure: a web of minimal post-Garcia/Connors guitar figures from both Carters, and a brittle, lonesome, perfectly pitched vocal from Christina – this one is heavily echoed and near wordless. Lovely on a musical level, but in the emotional stakes, it’s cold, so cold…. I guess the power of Charalambides at their best (eg, live) has always leaned heavily on the tension between repression/release, but at the moment they seem to be making music that’s keeping it all inside, y’know…? It’s music a bit like being given the brush-off by someone you used to tell your troubles to, a connection severed, and I don’t know if that’s really a feeling I enjoy having piped out of my speakers all that often, to be honest.

Labels: Charalambides, drone, Pocahaunted, Psychedelia, singles reviews