Release Info:
Artist : Theologian & Strom.Ec
Album : Hubrizine
Genre : Industrial
Label : Malignant Records
Catnum : TumorCD68
Source : CDDA
URL : http://www.discogs.com/Theologian-STROMec-Hubrizine/release/5836282
Mode Info:
Tracks : 7
Time : 00:58:05
Size : 112.06 MB
Encode : LAME 32bits version 3.98.4 (http://www.mp3dev.org/) -V0
Quality : 258kbps 44100Hz Joint Stereo
Tracklist:
1. Involuntary Dilation 10:16
2. Em-19 4:58
3. Ubik 5:01
4. Hubrizine 18:26
5. Exegesis 5:23
6. World War Terminvs 7:10
7. Flow My Tears 6:51
58:05 (min)
Hubrizine sees Theologian's extremely prolific Lee Bartow reworking material
provided by the duo of Jasse Tuukki and Toni Myíh⌠nen (Strom.ec) into a noisy
mass of sci-fi tinged electronics in tribute to Philip K. Dick. Even with the
large number of Theologian releases, he shapes this material into an album that
shapes the ugliness of noise into captivating musical structures with an
impressive depth that makes for a distinct, unique sounding record.
Many of these contemporary artists working in this post-/death-/whatever
industrial framework are content to simply pile digital reverb on top of metal
scrapes and synth noises and call it an album, but Hubrizine has so much more
complexity than this. Even through the echoing drone and skittering
pseudo-percussion of "Ubik", melodic electronics shine through, and the whole
thing has a distinctly composed sensibility to it. The elongated tones and
fuzzy bursts of ╙Flow My Tears╘ place it in some grey area between beautiful
and ugly, with the ambiguity adding greatly to the piece as a whole.
Other times the two projects choose to lean more into one extreme than the
other. "EM-19" begins with an almost orchestral loop that soon gives way to
overdriven crunch, heavily processed screams and metallic banging. Even within
these chaotic elements, they manage to put together a structured, orderly piece
that never feels random or directionless. At the other end of the extreme would
be "World War Terminvs", where things pared down to a ghostly drift. Sometimes
ominous, other times delicate and beautiful, it sticks to the less harsh
sounds.
The album's centerpiece is the lengthy title composition that brings all of
these disparate elements together. What may be guitar generated expanses of
feedback surge throughout the opening minutes, with melodies snuck in amidst
the noise. The guitar noise drops away to bring the melodies to the forefront,
but gets noisy again, with a more cybernetic and evil quality to it. It all
builds into a full on power electronics assault, with blown out electronics and
harsh vocals resulting in a fitting climax.
While the work of these two artists is stylistically clear, the album is not
something that can be easily pinned down as far as genre goes. This is largely
because they manage to avoid the clich∙s and demonstrate a compositional
ability that is more complex than most of their peers. It is uncommon that
"harsh" artists such as these build in so much song-like style and progression
into their work. That is exactly what makes this album excel, and stand head
and shoulders above so many others.