05/27/2016
www.vitalweekly.net
Some praise for a couple of Sygil Records works (along with Auris Apothecary and Bob Heavens Records)
CHARNEL HOUSE — VOICELESS HYMNS (cassette by Auris Apothecary)
LATHER/SOMMER DUO (cassette by Sygil Records/Bob Heavens)
Two cassettes and both of these are released by various labels at the same time, if I understand well.
While they were in the same mailer, I am not sure what the connection is. I guess Adam Sommer was
Charnel House on these recordings and he's also on the split with Lather.
I started off with Charnel House, the duo out of Bloomington, Indiana (and not the label that once came
out of San Francisco), of whom I reviewed a CD back in Vital Weekly 812. On this cassette one finds
the earliest moments of the band, and Sygil Records released this in 2010 (hey, another connection!).
Sommer plays here guitar, samples and beats and most of this is actually quite crude. Noisy at that, but
also sometimes played with nothing in mind about all such notions as a great production but that says
nothing about the quality of the music, which is something I quite enjoyed. Everything is rotten and dirty,
it all seems to fall apart in this dusty basement, and there is much torment when this was recorded;
at least that's what we are made to believe. 'Infinite Instance' is when Charnel House comes closest to
doing a (punk-) rock song, and along 'Borax Pillow' it is to be found at the end, like an appreciation for
sticking out so long? Or the move to a different kind of sound?
This cassette comes in a linen drawstring pouch and bone fragments in a miniature vials. That looks
great, but Auris Apothecary knows how to pack a release.
Adam Sommer, also known as Sommer here and Ben Myers and John Dawson, working as Lather
here (and who we found on the Enantiobiosis release, see Vital Weekly 847) recorded the other cassette
together. Sommer plays drums, guitar, tapes and effects while Myers is responsible for Optigan, SK-1,
Estey pump and voice, while John Dawson plays piano and drums, but who is also responsible for
recording, engineering and mixing. This is surely improvised music from a more free rock background,
and while occasionally things burst out with all noise, most of the time it actually stays on the softer
side; well, softer might not be the right word of course. More spaced out is perhaps a better word.
There are slow movements of guitar treatments, likewise slow bangs on the cans, all of this working
to a mighty crescendo, somewhere along one of the four pieces. It's improvised, drone like, noise like
and even maybe, who knows, metal like. This is nothing for the faint at heart. An excellent, powerful
collaboration of some very intense music. (FdW)
