MMMΔ, aka MMMD aka Mohammad, now we have that out the way we can begin. Are you sitting comfortably? Well you won’t be for long and going to the toilet and ridding thyself of any excess waste is advisable before playing anything by these 2 cosmonauts of low-end frequencies. This duo came to both my attention and no doubt others as they provided the soundtrack music to Lukas Feigelfeld’s 2017 stunning film Hagazussa – A Heathen’s Curse. They matched his gorgeous visuals on this tale of terror brilliantly and the fact that this film is still without a UK release is simply unforgivable. Still it’s easily available on import and experiencing it on various levels, moods and emotions is highly recommended. Before we go off point though MMMΔ and to put things simply and in context are practitioners of drone. If you have experienced that form of music in the past don’t let the somewhat pretentious and unlistenable in many cases of o)))ther examples of this style put you off. MMMΔ keep things relatively simple within the minimalist approach of the musical form and don’t bog you down with tracks that do nothing (well they don’t do a huge lot) over 45-minute track running times. In fact this entire album is much more palatable with 6 tracks running at just over the half-hour mark.
With track titles translating to the likes of arrogance, egotism, hypocrisy and separation that is the only inner narrative you will find as the Greek project’s 11th album is a strictly instrumental affair. You can let your mind wander easily over the soundscapes though and unleash the imagination to whatever path you may want it to wander. The one thing you may find difficult here especially if you share your Babylonian habitat with others crammed into a small place is playing this at any volume. It will shake, rattle and roll the very foundations and put simply will piss any neighbours off no end. The low frequency pulses and thro)))bbes with ancient sounding electro-acoustic apparatus sounding like the continuation of Delia Derbyshires’s experimental work in the BBC radiophonic workshop. Is this just one long note we have before us or something more I wonder as it trembles and loops repetitively? There are rises and falls in its substance and an underlying melody but is there more, am I missing something? What is that strange rattling or is it just in my head? Between track silence albeit it being scant seconds allows you to hit the reset button within your own auditory canals before the next passage of bass lined rolling lead takes form. This is certainly not music for everyone, some may find it incredibly boring, some may pass out in a pool of dribble, others may, as hinted at earlier, soil themselves. Then again you may slowly surf over the waves and even meditate upon them as this is strangely comforting to listen to as well especially as the somewhat mellow tones of a track like Egoismo are employed.
As this continues there are other facets forming below the bedrock, creeping out like lava and spreading over the continuous rumbling tones. A higher pitched sonorous and almost weeping musical note begins to invade over the top, it enforces the melody and the whole impact is strangely sinister, now the music is unsettling much as it was on the Hagazussa OST. ‘Veritta Mor’ brings different substance, again it is of a highly depressive and solemn nature maybe what sounds in my head like a bell clanking gives it a near religious musical epiphany. There’s some very subtle background chanting too which adds to this and for the listener a sense of inner peace and calmness is pretty much installed. Tracks ebb and flow until we arrive at the longest and closing number Ipokrisi, by now I am comfortably numb to the opioid effects of the journey. I can hear traffic coasting along on the main road outside, that cannot be turned off unless one was to immerse themselves in listening with headphones and in some sort of deep space immersion capsule. My state is altered enough as it is though and when silence falls it is going to take a while to re-adjust. MMMΔ have done very odd things to the senses and not just the one you may expect. Whether this sounds like a load of pretentious nonsense to you or not is a moot point, listening to this is the only way you will make any sense of it and I am rather glad that I have.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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