Description
There’s only one word for this: awesome! It was always going to be hard for Aufgehoben No Process to top their debut album of last year. That set, The Violence of Appropriation, was an all-out aural assault, a recording so visceral it smelled of burning amps. It was, and remains, a staggering achievement, albeit one you’d only listen to in the privacy of your own room. With headphones. And a mask. For Magnetic Mountain, an unsuspecting studio in Brighton was the venue for the biggest showdown since Tyson met Bruno. Unlike that sorry shambles, this one goes the distance and no-one leaves unscathed. Gary Smith’s stereo electric guitar has graced the work of Mass and Powerfield. His last appearance was in the collaboration with Hugh Hopper and Shoji Hano under the name Glass Cage. That blistering set was a stroll in the park when lined up next to this. As with the last album, Magnetic Mountain was recorded straight to DAT and edited later. Actually, the songs don’t sound ‘recorded’ as such, more like smeared to tape and left dripping gore. I’ve never heard anything so LOUD in my life. Take the brain melting riff that kicks off Gourdportalplaning, if you dare, and play it next to the likes of Slipknot for a short sharp lesson in dynamics. All the needles are tilted into the red and digital distortion – that normally loathed artefact of careless engineers – becomes an instrument in itself. And if this sounds like a lesson in shock tactics, listen up. There’s nothing here that could be truthfully labelled ‘unapproachable’. Grosse Module, underneath the hotwired feedback and fuzz, sports a Led Zeppelin riff straight off their second album. It’s not all full-on metal assault either. Sometimes the instruments drop out for a few seconds to leave vapour trails of hum and wheeze. Pat Metheny tried something similar once on his Zero Tolerance for Silence album and Aufgehoben No Process share an aesthetic with strands of the Japanese underground movement. But what makes this one of the few albums released this year which you must hear, is the fact that it’s British. Far from the polite world of Britpop and the phony lifestyle ephemera of the UK garage scene, Aufgehoben No Process are genuinely stretching the boundaries of accepted listening laws. Blinding, in every sense.(Billy Milk/Head Heritage)
