Dear Pharmakon fans: What is the big deal? I'm not even that familiar with the world of power electronics and similar styles of music and yet this already feels stale. It's not offensively bad by any means, but I think it's way too confident in what it's doing; there are certainly some interesting doom-laden textures scattered throughout, but there are scarcely explored to any kind of satisfying depth. I don't even necessarily dislike it but I simply find it horribly uninteresting, like its trying to force itself into these emotional niches; it's trying to be primal but it's too consciously composed and overtly self-aware to reach that kind of aesthetic. Still, I found some enjoyment
I rated it a 3.5 and if you know me that is a “I liked it quite a bit” on my scale. I am not in love with Pharmakon, but I do enjoy it quite a bit and as someone who is experienced to at least some level with this type of noise expressionism. But as I said in NoWaxJim’s ULL:
“Margaret Chardiet’s Pharmakon is wonderful, all of you are insane but maybe it’s me and my noise sensibilities for this but I love the sense of everything going on in this noise context. The harsh vocals are perfectly disjointed wallowing misery as the instrumentation is really quite cool too. I am not surprised a lot of people aren’t digging it because honestly this isn’t often a type of music that people find accessible or engaging if they are particularly new to it. Brandon, I’m sure you’ll really like Bestial Burden—I certainly did. I do think this one is about on the same level as her last record, but if you did not like that one I guess you should not even try this one unless you quite partial about developing your interest in noise/power electronics/industrial aesthetics and preferences.
But I don't think Pharmakon tries "too hard", I think a lot of it is organic; honest forms of expressing almost survivalistic screeching alongside steady and interesting power electronics-inspired structure and disharmony. I didn't feel it was obnoxious,”
Most of my reply was reactionary, which is obvious but I did put a lot of what I liked which I tried to explain with my familiarity with this type of music. I think Pharmakon is up there in quality with Anna Gardeck, Blunt Force Trauma, Theologian, and a few others—but my experience with Death Industrial is particularly minimal—I’ve only heard around twenty-five releases (or around there), so I really don’t have a place saying of the true quality. Hell, I’ve talked about Pharmakon’s new record not only on BEA but on other sites amongst noise fans and we’re a little divided on the quality. One of my peers thought it was boring, another thought it was by-the-numbers and didn’t do anything interesting, another said they really connected with the vocals that depicted screams that aren’t of pain and misery but survival, and the list goes on.
For me there is no big deal, like I said I was reacting and as a noise fan perhaps I see myself a need to defend even the popular forms of it. I do however think you can be well-composed and primal at the same time depending on how your expression comes out on record. I think Pharmakon achieves such success.
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Wow, that's probably the best Orphaned Land album I've heard. The guitar work in it was just about perfect and the rest of the instrumentation was awesome too. It was all over the place stylistically, which I've come to expect from them, and it's one of the things that makes their music so interesting, especially their inclusion of Arabic scales and things like that. Ranges anywhere from soft and beautiful to loud and powerful. Great album, thanks DBZ.
Their succeeding albums achieve a lot more musically and progressively. That said I also still love Mabool—it was the turning point for Orphaned Land to really understand what type of music they wanted to do and Yossi is one of the (imo of course) best progressive metal guitarists of his generation. I’m glad you got around to it, it’s my third favorite Orphaned Land record.
On a Final Note: Somebody give me a damn thing to listen to.
“So Many Wayz” is probably the only one that seems to have any semblance of familiarity to me, but it’s also the song that makes me question if I’ve listened to Quik before or not. Perhaps Quik was one of those artists that I heard in my friend’s basement growing up, but I’m not positive that it’s either. With that said I’m really digging the groove and mood of this one—which goes into this thought I have: why is this so damn smooth? I feel like a moth drawn to a flame with how slick not only the production is but also Quik’s flow itself. I think I came to the realization around the time “Thinkin’ ‘bout U” hit my ears, which had that kind of shiny feel to the sound reminding me why I liked a degree of contemporary R&B from the era. It’s pretty great.
Really appreciate your commentary on Pharmakon Gowi, (even if I don't necessarily concur with every sentiment, I always appreciate opinions contrary to my own. Got any recs built in a similar sonic vein you think I might enjoy more?)
Anyway, think I kinda got jumped over here, so I'll just send another rec Gowi's way
Have you heard? (EDIT: switched out the album rec)
I got to say this one didn’t do much for me, and I only really enjoyed two songs while the other songs passed me by—but as far as minimal electronic goes it doesn’t really connect with me in the way Orbital or other acts have. The album would be decent enough background noise I suppose but it doesn’t feel very immediate or attention grabbing.
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dividesbyzero
"Really appreciate your commentary on Pharmakon Gowi, (even if I don't necessarily concur with every sentiment, I always appreciate opinions contrary to my own. Got any recs built in a similar sonic vein you think I might enjoy more?)"
My PM box is always open if you want to discuss it more appropriately without bogging the thread down at length, of course. But I’ll actually throw something sort of relative to this. It’s death industrial as well, so expect the dark ambient-meets-power electronics thing going on:
Wow, this album moved ridiculously fast. It was interesting though, it didn't blow me away, but it was enjoyable. It was raw, it was aggressive, it made for a cool feel. It was over before I knew it, it ended and I was like "wait, it's over?" Good album though, I liked it
It's like a combination of everything I want death industrial to sound like and everything I don't expect it to sound like. The crushing tones and haunting whispers, screeches, and other assorted vocalizations build up over a industrial-textured soundscape just in time for Theolgian to crush said soundscape into little fleeting bits and I watched them fly away into static. My brain just got ripped apart so I'm not feeling like writing a hell of a lot... but I think there's something to be said for the fact that I just really enjoyed having my brain dragged through an industrial park in some cursed forest where the trees are made of rusted metal and the animals are waiting for you to gradually fall into insanity before they take their time to slowly consume your barely half-aware frame. whoa...
Well, shaydndepriest, I don't recall having ever seen you before so, *flips another coin*
I was challenged (and that term was chosen specifically for this) with listening to and reviewing Cymbals Eat Guitars Why There Are Mountains. I hated it, but not because it sounds too distasteful. In fact, the sound was very fun and kind of intriguing, but this was one of the few albums I couldn't stand because of the constant change of mood in every song. The mellow parts were very nice, but the other parts just didn't coincide with how I felt at the time. I feel that if this album didn't change so much, I would have felt better about it. The problem wasn't the album this time around, but I've just been exhausted every time I've listened to it and this album isn't really "I'm exhausted and need some uplifting" type album.
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