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Pyramids: Pyramids
07/07/09 || Khlysty
How weird is weird? How far is far out? How insanely can metal mix and mesh with other proponents of pop music before it all goes boom in a nasty tangle of viscera, gore and shit? Well, if you want answers to these questions, you’d better grab a copy of Pyramids’ self-titled, all-hush-hush-HydraHead-sponsored first record: this is what I call head-scratching music, and I’m still not sure about the “music” thingy.
See, if you ever wondered what it would sound like, if Ride covered Emperor, with production-mixing duties done by Skinny Puppy, this record contains at least two or three or ten answers to this question. Or, to reverse it, this is what would sound if Ulver and My Bloody Valentine decided to compose together the soundtrack to a movie directed by an epileptic with artistic delusions (of grandeur? Caused by massive ingestion of ergots? Fuck if I know…).
Everything here is about texture: at every given moment there are at least two or three guitars, reverbed and treated to fuck-ola and back, fighting for space AND covering every nook and cranny of the recording. I think that there’s bass somewhere in the whole chaos, but don’t take that for granted. Also, the drums (real and also treated like there’s no tomorrow? Synthetic? Don’t know that, either) come and go as they fucking please, sometimes just keeping the rhythmic backbone (which is constantly undermined by the guitars), sometimes blasting away, sometimes doing other shit, too difficult to be detailed in a review.
But, you know, the craziest thing is that all this shit’s happening upon melodies that My Bloody Valentine would just KILL for. OK, most of the time, these melodies are either buried under the massive reverb and distortion of the guitars, BUT the fuckers are ALWAYS THERE! Also, the vocals are of the shoegaze kind, although they are also treated to hell and back (Jim Plotkin mixes and masters the record and this is a great indication of what to expect, ‘kay?), melodious and subdued and not at all brutal or screechy or sumbthin’.
So, does this craziness work? Well, yes and no. See, there are moments where the music/noise conglomeration reaches almost celestial heights, or incredibly hellish lows. But, this is a record that demands total and rapt attention and multiple listens, so as to be absorbed, analyzed and enjoyed. Otherwise, it would just seem like randomized sampling of melody and noise, cut and pasted with the sole purpose of making the listener annoyed or angry. There’s so much information contained here, that a casual listen won’t be able –can’t be able- to reveal in its entirety, which brings me to the second disk, the one with the remixes by notaries like Blut Aus Nord, Toby Driver (of Kayo Dot fame), Lovesliescrushing, Jesu, at al.
This is the record that I would suggest one starts with, because each remixer takes elements of the song they’re fucking with and brings them to the front, giving focus to the disparate components that Pyramids use to create their unholy whole. Maybe it’s gay, but the remixes disk helped me understand in a deeper level the crazy shit that’s happening to the first disk, the album proper. So, for any soul of an adventurous and sturdy nature, Pyramids offer a great enigma for them to solve. Are you up to the task?…
8 crazy motherfucking melody-noise-fuckall musicks out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Hydra Head
- Website: Pyramids MySpace
- Band
- M. Dean: guitar
- M. Kraig: voices
- R. Loren: voices
- D. William: beats
- Tracklist
- CD 1:
- 01. Sleds
- 02. Igloo
- 03. The Echo of Something Lovely
- 04. End Resolve
- 05. Hellmonk
- 06. This House is Like Any Other World
- 07. Hillary
- 08. Ghost
- 09. Monks
- 10. 1, 2, 3
- CD 2: Remixes:
- 01. The Echo of Something Lovely (Toby Driver/Ted Parsons/Colin Marston)
- 02. 1, 2, 3 (James Plotkin)
- 03. The Echo of Something Lovely (Jesu)
- 04. Sleds (lovesliescrushing)
- 05. Ghost (Birchville Cat Motel)
- 06. Sleds (Blut Aus Nord)
- 07. The Echo of Something Lovely (James Plotkin)
- 08. The Echo of Something Lovely (lovesliescrushing)
