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GOREHALLREIDER "A Blow to the Head" (COHORT) It seems to me that Cohort Records is becoming more and more active these days, and so are the musical activities of their boss, John Gore, aka Kirchenkampf, aka The Oratory Of Divine Love and aka >wirewall<. Here he teams up with Steve Hall, aka Yen Pox and aka Veil Of Secrecy and the more unknown C. Reider, who runs the Vuzh Music label. All three delivered sound material for this release, which was then 'arranged, effected and mixed' by John Gore. He calls this 'psychedelic ambient', which is an appropriate tag. 'Violent Drone' might also be appropriate, as in all seven tracks drones of whatever nature (radio static, analogue synth and perhaps even field recordings) play an important role, but a likewise important role is played by all the applied effects that Gore adds to this. This gives this drone music a top heavy character, sounds bursting in and out everywhere, from the depths of the earth and stardust from the sky. A sizzling mix of static sounds that never sounds static. Everything seems to be moving around all the time, with small changes of color and texture, like a Yves Klein painting or a Steve Reich piano piece, ever so apparent in 'I Hear Voices'. Powerful drone music, along the lines of Troum, but more musical... by which ever definition music of course. (FdW)
"A Blow To The Head’ is a three way collaboration between John Gore (Kirchenkampf / The Oratory of Divine Love and Cohort Records), Steve Hall (Yen Pox / Veil of Secrecy) and C Reider of Vuzh Records. Of the three amigos concerned only Steve Hall is known to me through his work with Yen Pox and the absolutely essential Veil of Secrecy…with apologies to Mr Gore & Reider for neglecting any previous works they were involved in. This seven track release on Cohort Records could best be described as trippy dippy dark ambient with a certain experimental mentality behind it. Or psychedelic madhouse ambient. Or even ‘fuck me what the fuck is that’ dark ambient. What is for certain is that it is ambient…just not the type you usually associate with this genre. For example track two ‘I hear voices’ starts with a piano led piece over a subtle electronic drone before these (for want of better words) spooky voices of the dead appear then disappear to unquiet effect whilst mighty strange electronics pervade the piece. Unsettling is only half the story. Then it moves onto a completely different tact with track three ‘Tramadream’ which is a sloooow building dark drone with electronic effects. This generally is how the recording progresses. Slight changes in style that utilises all forms of electronic droning ambience and effects to present a collage of sounds that totally mesmerises and envelopes the listener. There’s a definite pastoral dreamlike, even nightmarish depending on your frame of mind at the time, quality to the soundscapes that drifts on high forming a base from which escapism from the drudgery of every day life can be attained. "A Blow To The Head" is music to sweetly surrender to completely. Its charms are skilfully craf ted allowing freedom to form your own thoughts and dreams through the sonic pleasures to be found within. Of course producing such a work isn’t exactly rocket science nor original in any way but its aims have been met superbly as a recording to be replayed and enjoyed whenever the mood takes you. That reason alone justifies checking it out in my book.
Much
more than "psychedelic ambient", which is how John Gore calls
his project with Steve Hall and C.Reider, this music sounds like a machine
washing away the sins from the blemished souls of those who believe in the
relaxing power of ambient itself, the presumed "real thing"
which sometimes makes us even more nervous due to lack of contents. On the
contrary, "A blow to the head" is an accomplished work, a group
of abstract reminiscences where the apparent absurdity of contorted voices
from the ground suggests multidimensional narratives wandering through
emotional relationships between uncommon synthetic parabolas and slowly
falling black angels. The quality of these suggestions grows with the
passage of time, so that concepts started with a touch of nice violence
find their own significance at last, mirroring themselves in a finely
displayed droning. ~
Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes |