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Niko Skorpio - 'Half Born In Half Light' CD (Some Place Else) |
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Written by Abby H.
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Half Born In Half Light is subtitled the Fourth and Final Appearance, reflecting the fact that Niko Skorpio has released various work-in-progress incarnations of the title over the years as limited CDR editions. The album opens with { Monogram }, focused around the unmistakable sound produced by additive synthesis graphic-to-sound conversion (think the excitement caused by Aphex Twin’s hidden face in the Windowlicker EP from years ago, or similar sounds in releases by Plaid and Venetian Snares). This follows into Worm in the Foundation, where Skorpio’s spoken words combine with clanging percussion and distorted thuds of bass guitar. Though it is hinted at in Worm In The Foundation, NeitherSphere betrays Skorpio’s roots in metal with ten minutes of smeared sludge that recalls Sunn O))) and other modern drone/doom bands, as well as Skorpio’s own seminal funeral doom band from the early nineties, Thergothon. While it could quite conceivably be made without any traditional metal instrumentation, NeitherSphere still manages to sound, as the kids say, very metal. The metal influence rears its tousled head again in the epic Through the Ribcage which climaxes its seventeen minute length with a maelstrom of distorted guitar and feedback. Conversely, tracks like Leper Angel and the bizarrely-titled To Reincarnate as a Bagpipe are breathy twilight-lit ambientscapes with details and hints of melodies flittering around in the high end. Perhaps the most successful track is the closing We No Longer Exist where the sound of bass-heavy flames and metallic clanking sedately mix with distant rising synth tones. It doesn’t necessarily go anywhere, other than the synths becoming more insistent at the end, but it’s the combinations of sounds themselves that makes the lack of journey worthwhile. With metal, dark ambient and general dronage in the mix, it’s hard not to see Half Born In Half Light as a varied beast, but one that is coherent in its vision. www.someplaceelse.net
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