More deranged nuttiness from Atypeek and actually 3 other labels who are releasing this in collaboration with them. This French lot were one that I approached with caution as their music is described as math rock which I can’t really get to grips with due to the gymnastic display of instrumentation which on the whole leaves my poor brain tied in knots. To be fair this lot do kind of do that but although it is schizophrenic in nature it doesn’t leave me feeling like I have just undertaken an advanced algebra course. It’s still absolutely bonkers and 99% instrumental. I can understand the claims that Çub have created a new fusion of sorts with their electronic sound which is played with real instruments but whether it will make any sense to anyone is down to the individual.
Presented over 5 tracks in just under half an hour we steam into ‘Terfuge’ with bleeps and beats delivered over some sorta binary computer form taking us into a cross genre waltz that knows no limits. What really appeals to me about all this is some of the shapes the band throw out and I don’t mean in a posturing heavy metal sort of way but that of techno artists such as Autechre, Aphex Twin, Black Dog, μ-ziq and LFO. Yep this is stuff I have dabbled with and enjoyed in the past and although not strictly metal as such there is a certain amount of crossover here even when this is stumbling all over the shop and lurching like a drunk on the verge of collapse. At times it sounds like 3 different “songs” are playing at once so that’s where the sums come in, I guess. ‘Stance’ has a peaceful start, strings are faintly plucked like feathers from a chickens bum, a beat is slowly tapped out and shapes shift before it heads into an almost world music waltz. You can stumble around to this like a zombie reanimated with its shoelaces tied together, its spiky, its bouncy and at the end of the day its fun as is the whole album for those who can bend their heads around it. Someone has definitely popped some pills in my music and transported me to a different sort of gig as the techno beats build and thud out and this isn’t so much synth wave as synth rave. Jugué is played with some sassy salsa like Latin flavours, guitar gently twanging along with the beats and spiky shapes before going into delirious upbeat trance rhythms. There’s something transporting me all over the place both musically and geographically here as we take in different flavours. I think this lot of loons have probably studied music from all over the world as they play around with what could even be tribal Afrikaans like beats and rhythms here. Some sudden chants come over the top (as I said 99% instrumental) adding perfectly to the mind-warping effect.
The production is excellent and different from normal listening here and when ‘Til’ flies off the handle into some crazy techno, the sort you have probably seen with a Viking marching around to on a famous internet meme along with gypsy punk chants you just have to turn it up full blast and confuse the hell out the neighbours. Circles, squares, triangles are all musically formed and lines are jagged and far from straight as this exercise in musical Mr Men is finalised with Zidiare and although I am somewhat confused, I can’t help but really have enjoyed all this. If it had been sent via a download it would have probably got ignored, as it was a CD I was forced to take a listen before expecting to reject it as being too outside what we cover. I guess that’s all part of the PR game though and this time it definitely worked. One thing’s for sure I need to take a couple of hours off before even thinking playing something like a normal death metal album again and as crazed chap shouts out what sounds like “zigga zig ahhhhhh” I wonder if my head will ever be quite the same again.
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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