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DREAM / AKTION UNIT - Blood Shadow Rampage

DREAM / AKTION UNIT - Blood Shadow Rampage
VOLCANIC TONGUE
CD // £12.99
DARK AMBIENT / DRONE / METAL
Released: Sep 2006
Catalogue Number: VT003

A bone-chilling meeting of minds, the Dream/Aktion Unit was originally conceived by everyone’s favourite guitar string executioner Thurston Moore together with his ex-bandmate Jim O’Rourke to explore the experimental sounds they felt unable to realise fully in Sonic Youth. In time the ranks swelled to include New England free-jazz legend Paul Flaherty on Sax and his regular collaborator and ex-Manchester resident Chris Corsano and then of course Jim O’Rourke moved to Japan and quit SY. This particular recording also features the first lady of Volcanic Tongue (who we can thank for putting this out into the world) Heather Leigh Murray (ex-Charalambides) on pedal steel and vocals and No Neck Blue Band’s Matt Heyner on upright bass. Well now we’ve got all that out of the way I can breathe out again and reveal that the record is as saliva inducing as the line-up, if you want sheer creative power, noise, explosive sound and the meeting of some of the world’s most inventive and intriguing musical minds then you’re looking in the right place. To be honest Thurston Moore could release a faint guitar squeak and it would probably catch my attention, but the inclusion of these crucial collaborators makes this disc one of the most interesting things he’s been involved with in the last few years. Opening with ‘Birth of the Ghoul’ (yes I’m also swayed by the overt gothic horror leanings expressed throughout the record… Peter Cushing would be proud) we are immediately catapulted into a bizarre world with Moore’s signature guitar vibrating and bending in the foreground while Corsano crumbles and crunches beneath Flaherty’s assured horn bleats. A haunted house of baroque drone awaits those who enter unaware, and then without warning the shock comes at around half way through, as if a hand has erupted from a nearby wall or a spectre has materialised to gouge out your eyes – suddenly we’re confronted by a heavy sludge of noise; guitar, drums, sax, pedal steel in a gloriously terrifying cacophony. This sets the pace for the entirety of the record, which flits playfully between dissonant drones and the sort of all-encompassing free-whatever noise that makes me want to grow my hair and sell sew-on patches at the local market. Seriously I can’t say enough good things about this crushing release, all this insanely good music and it’s also housed in some of the finest packaging I’ve seen this year – a kind of hardback book style case (like a Ladybird book actually…) with gorgeously macabre paintings courtesy of Chocolate Monk’s Karen Constance. You need this record, that’s about all else that needs to be said…

• Tracks on DREAM / AKTION UNIT - Blood Shadow Rampage:
• DREAM / AKTION UNIT : 01
• DREAM / AKTION UNIT : 02
• DREAM / AKTION UNIT : 03

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