Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh
wgah'nagl fhtagn.
("In his house at R'lyeh, dead
Cthulhu waits dreaming") H P Lovecraft
IT KNOWS. There is no doubt, it is
watching, listening, the machines serve the great master, and the
madness chewing its way out from the guts of a solipsistic musician
in a tiny city on the edge of the world has made its mark. It stinks
like magnesium burning. On the skin of my hands it feels like dust
mixed with the hollow echoes of shaky handed anxiety - anxiety
overpowered by a spirit of Doom-Punk. This is non-pythagorean music.
This is a Cthonic-post-rock-electronic-noize-darkwave-experiment
that summons a plethora of unnamed spirits into the now vacant, foggy
swamp of my imagination.
Nearly devoid of melody, even rhythm
seems repulsive to the sheer atmosphere of chaos that this music
exudes. While comparisons with normal music are at best, misleading,
IT KNOWS sometimes sounds as if The Cure made
an album with Venetian Snares and
Merzbow. It is the
sonic equivalent of bleach mixed with curdled milk and diesel. Even
metaphors fail. Describing this music is as difficult as listening
to it. This is challenging sound art. These songs defy conventions
like chorus-verse-chorus as if they were paper only to be burnt in
the furnace of introspection.
If you
stare into the void, it stares back. This is a truth well enough
established to need no statements of proof. IT KNOWS sings into the
void, and the mirrored sound echoing back from that
empty-full-emptiness is both harrowing and comforting. These are
sounds not found on the radio, except in the weirdling space between
stations. This music makes no pop-culture references, has no catchy
dance beats, no sweet harmonies. This music is the promise made good
of an ancient sleeping God. In his house at R'lyeh, dead
Cthulu waits dreaming. This
review is not a summary of a single album, but instead represents my
weeks long listening obsession with this nearly unknown musician. To
write about music, I have to live with that music. I have made my
pact with the muses, and the madness they deliver is welcome.
IT KNOWS.
Not for the faint
of heart, or for the gentle listener. This music is the sandpaper
that scratches an itch very few people can understand.
If you dare, this
music lays in wait, dreaming in R'lyeh.
... ... ... but the dream is
not over, and IT KNOWS makes more than noise. The first three
albums: Before Kill, Kill, and 7, are encapsulated in
the above description, but the 4th album, Crypsis
is a leap forward in form, style and substance.
The songs on
Crypsis are far more conventional than the other albums, yet
the music retains the unique sound developed in the first three
albums. My favourite song on Crypsis is the 14 minute
shoegazer epic 'Devil'. Crypsis has a feel like the early Cure
albums, Pornography and Faith, but with a far more
electronic production. The music has a lot of space in it, the
melodies and rhythms progress in a very comforting way, but they do
not leave me bored. Rather, this album reveals the depth and
diversity of the artist's musical skill, as well as his devotion to
developing his creative process and product. Crypsis is like
a cross breed between The Cure and The XX, but dirtier than either of
them, darker, with an original and authentic underground feel that is
inspiring.
IT KNOWS has a
fifth album currently in the final stages of mixing. I am excited to
hear where he goes with it.
You can listen to,
download and purchase music by IT KNOWS, through Bandcamp
And you can listen
on youtube...
The bands I
referenced can be found on bandcamp as well.
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