Oren Ambarchi: Guitar, Spirit and Loops; Richard Pinhas: Guitar, Analog Synth Guitar and FX; Joe Talia: DrumZ, FX and Mix; Masami Akita (Merzbow): Loop, Noiz and FX; Duncan Pinhas: Sequences, FX and NoiZ; Eric Borelva: Additional DrumZ.
In the DVD: Oren Ambarchi: Noiz and loop guitar + amazing drumz; Richard Pinhas: Roland analog synth guitar + loop guitar
(Note: the credits’ spelling and lettering were willingly left as printed on the leaflet)
In spite of a 18-year gap, Pinhas and Ambarchi seem to be born to complement each other, an assumption substantiated by the reciprocated smiles during their duet performance at Paris’ Les Instants Chavires, taped in 2013 to appear in the DVD of this indispensable double-disc set. The intoxicating fury expressed both there and, especially, in the studio album – also courtesy of blood-and-guts performances by the remaining dissenters in the latter circumstance – is quite abnormal if compared to the typically assuasive consequences produced by music supported by reiterative forms. Tikkun – conceptually and idealistically defined by Pinhas as a “means to repair something that is deeply broken” – corresponds to one of the most compelling releases heard in a very long time by yours truly, independently from genres. It is gradually turning into a mental enhancement, another way to become an over-viewing extrinsic spirit in a world that does not need harmoniousness and actual emotions at all, but still enforces fictitious places and celestial designs in the depleted brains of those unable to get to grips with personal experience.
A scary multiplication of guitar fragments and invasive noises defines “Washington D.C – T4V1”, entirely grounded on an obsessive ternary pattern which goes on and on and on. Things reach a state of chimerical equilibrium in the piece’s final third: the loops and the basic pulse calm down to bring out remarkably poignant harmonic shifts caused by simple factors, such as the variation of a bass pedal. Throughout the mutation, spasmodic drums accentuate a recurrent sense of danger, nourishing the tormented awareness which prevents genuinely sensate individuals from believing in radical changes of a detrimental status quo. Mass decline can only be endured by fighting a silent guerrilla on an individualistic level, provided that one possesses the inner instruments to do it.
“Tokyo – T4V2”, the shortest track on offer, is a potent demonstration of unassailable sonic compactness, characterized by a peculiar reverberation of the snare drum emphasizing ceaseless vortexes of uncompromisingly fuzzy repetitions by the guitars. The amazing regenerative force born from the looped lines during the finale might even convert the miscreants: no existing word alters a man’s consciousness more than the physical properties of the “exact” frequencies. Those where human voices are gone.
“San Francisco – T2V2” is another marathon through the flames of hurtful sentience, but it gives oxygen rather than taking it. Beginning with a progressive pile-up of alien sonorities and distorted discharges, it evolves into a belligerent accumulation of lengthy overdriven screams, infinitely procreating mono-chordal aggregates, ferocious drumming and implied choirs from hell. A cross of stability and precariousness whose violence conveys a supreme grace. The inessential finally discarded, the mesmeric qualities of an inexplicably reassuring chaos reveal multi-dimensional geometries in a veritable process of riddance of the ego.
Listen to this sick scribbler: Tikkun belongs among the cardinal editions of the decade. Snatch a fucking copy and see what I have been meaning with all those rants across the years. Stop listening to overblown idiots “suggesting” how to live a life – your goddamn life – right now, or get squandered forever.
“When the Metatronics kick in, listening to Pinhas is like listening to the universe” (From Cuneiform’s press release).
MASSIMO RICCI. TOUCHING EXTREMES. 