Cages - Folding Space

Cages – Folding Space, 2009 (Cold Spring - CSR121CD) 80%

The work of Nola Ranallo and David Bailey, Cages’ Folding Spaces represents the welding together of the pair’s dreams, translated into an audio context and shared via tapes, packaged and posted before being knitted together to form a quite singular release that is enough to leave even the most ardent comparer scratching his head. Nola’s vocal style is similarly varied to Bjӧrk, though with a touch of the irreverent ire of Diamanda Galas. Her looped panting on third track ‘Cavern’ lends the release a DIY feel and within its context conjures the sort of trapped nightmare sequences represented by Panicsville’s Andy Ortmann. The highlights of the album for me however remain the utterly beautiful ‘Dream Dip Sailor’ and blues-tinged ‘Psalm to Mother’, during which Nola’s vocals threaten to lurch right out of the speakers and take on the sort of dreadful physical manifestation only Takeshi Miike himself could envision. Not for the fainthearted, but paradoxically rather gorgeous, the lyrics mirror the music and I couldn’t help but think of not only Edward Lear, but a Joanna Newsom of a darker, more desolate galaxy.

“Why drink from the trees
when the leaves are soaked with piss
The moon is a locket filled with tar
To paste over each scar”

A truly unique affair, ‘Folding Space’ is by no means a typical Cold Spring album, but will find a treasured place in the collection of many an open-minded lover of extreme and experimental music.

Dekadent - Aesthetix

Dekadent – Aesthetix, 2010 (Goatowarex – SDL043) 90%

After their split of 2009 with much hyped Joyless, Romanians Dekadent have taken an immense step forward with their hugely ambitious, multi-textured debut full-length ‘Aesthetix’. Avant-garde black metal that pushes the boundaries and will send purists crying to mummy is the order of the day here – hell the fourth track is even a Ladytron cover! Not to be confused with symphonic BM Slovenians of the same name, Dekadent’s diversity of influence is astounding and one might easily suppose an appreciation of Forgotten Woods, postpunk, The Cure, Amesoeurs, Lifelover, Nuit Noire, ROME, The Knife, horror soundtracks (especially The Omen) and far more in-between. Entitling their tracks ‘Audio Curse From Transilvania’, ‘Suicide Hobby’ and ahem ‘Whore Riflefuck’ is a suggestion that the Romanian horde have a ripe sense of humour, but the fun is held together surprisingly well and the jarring sense of many such diverse works is refreshingly minimised. A magnificent display of vocal diversity adds to the musical eclecticism and makes for an album that you will return to again and again (if you dare). The lyrics are predominantly English, though there is some use of native Romanian, and strongly hint at despair over the state of their country – an inkling borne out in the liner notes in which the band offer a big “FUCK YOU” to Romania because ‘in spite of its natural beauty, cultural values and folklore is full of retarded people that make each other’s existence impossible’. I think many would agree that you guys in Romania are not alone in your dark thoughts towards the state of your nation and its inhabitants. ‘Aesthetix’ is one of my most treasured recent boundary-pushing black metal discoveries and a must for those who’ve flirted with the likes of Solefald, Amsvartner, Lifelover, Nuit Noire and are looking for a new night time companion.