Locrian – Archive 3: Visible/Invisible
Locrian – Archive 3: Visible/Invisible
Self-Released
Release Date: 08/11/22
Review by Dark Juan
Running Time: 42:16
9/10
Welcome to yet more possibly terrifying ranting. I am Dark Juan, and I have returned to the Keyboard Of Eternal Peril to share thoughts and ruminations with you all, and also to exhort you all, my dear readers, to follow the Righteous paths of Heavy Metal, other extreme music and to tread upon the Left Hand Path. Let’s face it, the Christians aren’t doing a very good job of their stewardship of the planet, are they? Their spineless God does nothing to intervene when his supposed children are busily trying off each other despite the prayers, protestations, exhortations and pleading of the faithful. Lucifer would be much more effective at keeping us all in check with a well-placed fireball or two…
Today’s listening would not be the soundtrack to any form of apocalypse, unless it was a long, drawn-out ecological one where everyone died gently of an overload of CO2. I am listening to “Archive 3: Visible/Invisible’” by Locrian (who you will all no doubt recall released an album of singular brilliance earlier in the year – https://www.ever-metal.com/2022/08/31/locrian-new-catastrophism/ being the link you NEED to click if this piece of descriptive writing is not enough for you, greedy guts) and this release represents the first studio session Locrian ever recorded, way back in 2006, when they were just an ambient, experimental duo, together with a live rendition of ‘Visible/Invisible’ (this record is composed of the title track, the title track reversed, and the aforementioned live version). This is clearly inspired by the Brian Eno/Robert Fripp collaborative album “No Pussyfooting” which included songs reduced to half speed and other permutations therein. You might think that this release would be quite boring because it is all the same music times three, wouldn’t you?
First, you have to take this release in context – this is the sound of a band making their initial explorations into the outer edges of music and should be considered as such. That taken into account, certain rough edges and overstepping the boundaries of music into self-indulgent noodling can be discounted as this release represents a raw form of the brilliance that was distilled into “New Catastrophism”. The opening version of ‘Visible/Invisible’ starts with a gentle, warm drone and this continues for some time before anything changes, whereupon other elements of electronic sound, feedbacking electric instruments and an underlying bass moan gently feed into the spinal, slowly organically pulsing drone that is unchanging and unending. Eventually, an electric guitar driven groan adds power and the music changes from ambient, dimly lit, safe-sounding drone into a light filled, explosive concentration of power. It’s almost as if the music is being birthed from a musical womb – from safety, security and the nurturing warmth of mother into a world of fluorescent lights, machines, noise and cold. As I listened to this tune, I found my own heartbeat syncing to the pulsating of the original electronic drone. Then the Dread Lord, Sir Igor Egbert Bryan Clown-Shoe Cleavage-Hoover started barking and fucking ruined the ambience for me, the absolute twunt.
On to ‘Visible/Invisible Reverse’ then, where the entire vibe is turned on its head and it confuses me. The heavier, guitar driven noise starts the track, and then all the elements that took so long to build up on the original version are equally slowly stripped away, and this leaves a bleak, empty feeling to the work, whereas the un-reversed version is indicative of life/birth. It indicates to my admittedly twisted, abused and ruined psyche that it is the sound of entropic decay – vibrant, loud, brash sounds dying slowly off until there is only the underlying drone that has been undermining everything throughout the music left, until that too fades out and there is only the silence of quantum decay as the very building blocks of physical existence are consumed by entropy. After the organic life breaks down and is consumed, then it’s inorganic life until planets, moons and then entire stars disappear, then entire star systems, galaxies and then interstellar gases and bodies until there is nothing left except featureless black, devoid of all known matter. And then entropy starts on the metaphysical – time itself begins to unravel and break apart. Entropy then feeds on itself when there is nothing left to consume – eventually leaving an inimitable, unimaginable nothing.
I need to get out more. Jesus. That’s bleak.
There’s also a live version which adds yet more dynamics to the original work, the live work being some double the length of the recorded version. Granted, there are certain limitations in the live setting which robs the work of some of the intricacy of the recorded versions, yet it has a whole new vibrancy and LIFE. The performance starts with a tolling bell entirely absent from the recorded versions before the pulsating drone begins. The tune is slightly faster than the recorded work, and things happen in a slightly more busy fashion, building to e-bow solos, heavy, throbbing bass, guitars fading in and out of structured passages and eventually building into a harsh and uncompromising wall of noise that has little to do with music, before the decay sets in and everything eventually drops back out until there is just the bell, tolling mournfully into the outer darkness, until entropy claims that too and it fades, still tolling stubbornly and forlornly into the black.
Well. That has been an experience, and no mistake. When I first heard this album I was prepared to write it off as a kind of initial exploration and rejection of music by people who were, frankly, a little up themselves thinking that they were superior to well-established musical norms. However, that would be being fucking horrible to a very talented band who are adept (and appear to have been since day one) at deconstructing music and recreating it in forms that are pleasing to otherworldly creatures and those of us who understand music at its most basic level. Locrian have bewitched and bedazzled me once again, and it appears that they have been able to do it since day one.
The demerits are few and aren’t really negative. Yet again, this release is only going to find an extremely limited audience, as it is intelligent music that doesn’t have to rely on shouting, screaming and absolute hairy-chested muscularity to be powerful. It is a swirling maelstrom rather than a machine-gun percussive assault and yet more proof that music can be heavy without being Metal. If you’re feeling introspective and a little bit down don’t listen to Locrian. If you fancy expanding your mind and your listening, Dark Juan ABSOLUTELY recommends Locrian to your attention. I think of them as a kind of more mechanical, metallic companion to the likes of Ozric Tentacles, Cyborg Ambient if you will.
I’m off to go and drink something alcoholic and listen to Murray Head’s ‘One Night In Bangkok’ and ‘The Safety Dance’ by Men Without Hats to reset my mental state after Locrian have got me thinking about the heat death of the entire universe.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System awards Locrian 9/10 for this album of their early and pioneering work. A mark has been deducted for the record not really being Metal (although I would consider it extreme) and for the fact that Locrian will achieve an audience that is a mere fraction of the one that they should rightly achieve. And that is not fair.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Visible/Invisible
02. Visible/Invisible Reverse
03. Visible/Invisible (Live)
LINE-UP:
Terence Hannum – Synthesizers, Vocals, Tape Loops
André Foisy – Guitars, Electronics
Steven Hess – Drums, Electronics
LINKS:
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