metal
This week on the Talking to Ghosts podcast we have an interview with Aidan Baker from the doom/experimental metal band Nadja. They have a huge catalog and a nearly constant state of production, so it was great to talk to Aidan about life in Berlin, soundtrack work, books, and a 3-hour performance as the sun was coming up over a parking garage in Toronto.
Nadja's new album, Luminous Rot, is out now on Southern Lord.
Talking to Ghosts is produced and recorded by Michael Kurt and Wesley Mueller.
Over the last few years, chaotic art music has become a core-level emotional experience in the experimental metal and noise scenes. With bands like Mamaleek, Frontierer, and Street Sects making deep ruts in my frequently recommended albums for anyone seeking an intense musical experience, I was surprised to find that I’d never heard Hiraki’s 2017 debut album Modern Genes. How could a band with such a perfect balance of messy and cohesively chaotic energy make a follow up that could not only rival their debut, but turn it in a way that felt fresh and linear at the same time?
How could someone win me over after hearing Mamaleek’s Come and See? For Hiraki, the answer to this was to go even harder. More discomfort; more crushing, intense rhythms; more beauty in moments of chaos (and sometimes malice). From the analog synth gates to the blown-speaker transcendence of modern noise rock, Hiraki finds a way to make the discomfort stick to your ribs. The vocals are gross, but also deeply emotional. The drums are huge, never to be overtaken by other sometimes more intense rhythmic elements.
“Proto Skin,” which comes six and a half minutes into the record, is the first moment of reprieve from the madness of the first two tracks. But even “Proto Skin,” with it’s almost post-hardcore second half and it’s suddenly more traditional emotional hardcore scream, can’t be trusted. From the start of the track, a very mechanical guitar riff, which is almost old school industrial in its rhymicallity, devolves into a mess of cymbals and catharsis, which then returns to the mechanical, plodding-along tension of the start. “I’ll be here all year,” vocalist Jon Gotlev repeats many times, “just yelling.”
Out of context, “Proto Skin” would slip rather comfortably into a screamo playlist. It would have to be near the noisy peak of pure emotion, but I believe it would work. In context though, next to the aggressive churning and frantic “Wonderhunt,” or the nearly death industrial vibe of “New Standards,” it is the balancing point that forms a cohesive map to the latter half of the record. It shows that Hiraki are not only not fucking around, but that genres are for suckers. Heaviness by any means necessary and transcendence through raw human emotion.
“Mirror Stalker,” like “Proto Skin,” is built around a pulsing, mechanical rhythm. The track is littered with almost-notes from the guitars. It’s almost a strum, but cut off. Even the notes that are played are out of tune. It’s so frustratingly uncomfortable. But goddamn does it work well as an atmosphere that surrounds someone yelling “Mirror stalker, mirror stalker!”
The final track, “The Alarmist,” combines all of the energy and catharsis of previous tracks to bring the entire frenetic mess to a stumbling, noisy end. The track devolves from a classic hardcore build up, to a breakdown driven by quick hits on a highhat, with the guitar and the noisy atmosphere filling out both the high and low end, until the noise layer takes over and churns slowly from a melodic, almost uplifting, run to a nightmare of overblown, clipping bass distortion. The drums disappear, then the guitar, then everything, into the reverb tail at the end of the track.
The evolution of Hiraki from one album to the next seems to be more bleakness, more disgusting, raw humanity, and I’m here for it. The noisy, electronic elements are more developed and the overall sound design has crossed from progressive art metal over to raw electronic power. In a decade filled with fantastically avant garde and progressive art musicians like Street Sects, Lingua Ignota, and Daughters, it’s always amazing to me when a band manages to just blow my mind in the category. Stumbling Through The Walls is a massively intense and complicated album, and if the progression from debut to sophomore album is any indication, the next work from this project will be crushing.
Hiraki’s Stumbling Through The Walls is out now on Nefarious Industries, or directly on Bandcamp.
This week on the Talking to Ghosts podcast we are re-running our 2016 interview with the experimental metal band Muscle & Marrow (featuring a new intro and slightly improved audio)! Although this band is no longer active, the duo have a great new pop project called So Sensitive!
Muscle & Marrow were one of our favorite projects and it was an amazing opportunity for us to interview these great folks while they were still living in Portland, OR.
Talking to Ghosts is recorded and produced by Michael Kurt and Wesley Mueller. Check out our archive page for previously released podcast episodes, or the Reviews page for new reviews!
This week on Talking to Ghosts we have the final episode for 2018! Thou is an experimental metal band from Baton Rouge who put out a crazy number of records this year! We had the opportunity to sit down with Thou frontman Brian Funck after their run of two Portland shows to talk about working on records from different parts of the US, their various projects, and being a workaholic to keep things level.
Thou is out on the road near constantly and we highly recommend you check out all of their 2018 releases!
2018, what a year! I feel like sometimes people say what a year as a joke - I envision a CEO at the company party, toasting everyone for their great success - but this year has felt a million times longer than any year before. In this episode we reflected a little bit on how long the year has felt and lamented about all of the releases and shows we’ve already forgotten. There was an election this year? How many great albums have I already moved on from that came out THIS YEAR?
Thank you. Thank you is what we want to say to everyone who took the time out of their weird, long year to listen and support our podcast. We started this podcast, 4 years ago, to hang out with each other more and to provide interviews with people we enjoyed and this year has been full of some really, really good ones. We’ve heard from, and met in person, more fans than ever before! All in all, it’s been a great experience.
Here is a list of all episodes released in 2018 and the direct download links to the episode. Thank you to all of our guests on the show and to everyone who has shared or talked about the episodes.
(List order: Most recent at the top)
124 - Thou
123 - SciFiSol
122 - Sabine Rear
121 - SRSQ
120 - Halloween Special Episode (Feat. Alex Kennedy, Matt Finale, Eric Gottesman, and Sophie)
119 - Michael and Wes (Again, Ugh!)
118 - Sloane Leong
117 - MSC
116 - Susan Subtract
115 - Uniform
114 - Lingua Ignota
113 - Amenra
112 - Eleri Harris
111 - Zola Jesus
110 - HIDE
109 - Daniel B. (Front 242, Nothing But Noise)
108 - Thor Harris
107 - Noelia Towers
106 - King Woman
105 - Ritualz
104 - Kontravoid
103 - Kelly Fitzpatrick
102 - GLAARE
101 - Cold Showers
100 - Amulets
099 - Michael and Wes Talk About Shows
098 - The Body