Ashenspire – Hostile Architecture
Ashenspire – Hostile Architecture
Code 666 Records
Release Date: 15/07/22
Running Time: 44:00
Review by Paul Hutchings
7/10
This was a punt in the dark as although I’d heard the name, the music that Glaswegian’s Ashenspire produce was a bit of an unknown entity. Within minutes of the opening track, ‘The Law of Absestos’, I’d realised that this was no easy listen. For Ashenspire play a complex, rage filled Avant Garde Post-Black Metal style that jars every few seconds.
Formed in 2013, “Hostile Architecture” is every bit as unorthodox as you might imagine. Their debut release, 2017’s “Speak Not of the Laudanum Quandary” has received high praise, with Metal Temples giving it a 98% no less.
‘The Law of Asbestos’ is a chaotic, sprawling eight-minute oratory, with brass, violin and raging riffage, which all combine to force the harrowed vocals to spew forth in a passionate and visceral approach. It’s uncomfortable listening, and as the track crashes straight into the second song, ‘Beton Brut’, you realise that the organic combination of poetry, soapbox and thrusting Black Metal interlaced with that violin and startlingly creative elements provide a chilling and completely left of field experience.
Whether you like this or not is almost academic. For Ashenspire is an experience, even just on a digital release. It needs to be experienced and one can only imagine the frenetic explosion that a live show must bring.
“Hostile Architecture” is described as a ‘sonic exploration of the ways that subjects under late capitalism are constrained and set in motion via the various structures that uphold stratification and oppression in urban contexts.’ Think of the designs that are used in social spaces to deter the public – remember the anti-homeless spikes?
Three drivingly cacophonic pieces give way to choral voices on ‘How the Mighty Have Vision’ and it’s all a bit weird, yet strangely intriguing. I guess there is an audience for this music with its total unpredictability and bizarre switches of tempo, passion, and style. The tempo and temperature increase as the album develops. And yet, there is no pause from the angular time signatures, the crazed vocals, and the combination of instruments that really cause consternation. I suppose this is the kind of music you either get or you don’t.
‘Apathy as Arsenic Lethargy as Lead’ presents more confusion, with some extreme and even more confusing interplay, before the penultimate track ‘Palimpsest’ takes us on an instrumental journey that harks back to the psychedelic journeys Hawkwind embarked on in the 1970s, without the aggressive and threatening edge. If you’ve managed this far, then the nine-minute explosion of ‘Cable Street Again’ is likely to drag you screaming across the finish line. It’s pure raw ferocity combined with a selection of instruments that don’t always pull in the same direction.
I guess Ashenspire are something of an acquired taste. In “Hostile Architecture” they have delivered something that just feels a little bit too complex and intricate for this reviewer. But if you like your music to put you on point from start to finish, then this complicated Scottish outfit are something that genuinely deserve some exploration.
‘The Law Of Asbestos’ Official Lyric Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. The Law of Asbestos
02. Beton Brut
03. Plattenbrau Persephone Praxis
04. How the Mighty have Vision
05. Tragic Heroin
06. Apathy as Arsenic Lethargy as Lead
07. Palimpsest
08. Cable Street Again
LINE-UP:
Fraser Gordon – guitar, vocals
James Johnson – violin, vocals
Alasdair Dunn – drums, vocals
Ben Brown – bass
Matthew Johnson – saxophone, vocals
Scott Maclean (Falloch) – Rhodes, prepared piano
Rylan Gleave – t/b voice
Amaya López-Carromero – S/A Voice
Otrebor – Hammered Dulcimer
LINKS:
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