Black Meteoric Star: Black Meteoric Star
Black Meteoric Star’s eponymous debut album comes highly anticipated, not just for me personally, but for most of the electronic music loving world. The brainchild of DFA cohort Gavin Russom, Black Meteoric Star is not just a musical alias, but an identity and a concept, through which Russom explores and responds to the last thirty years of dance music in a way which goes beyond simple pastiches, into a realm of artistic expression and sensation of sonic frequency which has more in common with drone bands like Sunn o))) than the house and disco music which DFA is most commonly known for.
This is not to say that Black Meteoric Star lacks rhythm. Anyone unfamiliar with Black Meteoric Star, and expecting more along the same lines as Russom’s album with Delia Gonzalez, The Days Of Mars, will be surprised, when, in the opening track “Death Tunnel”, after the initial few seconds of arpeggiated synthesizer, an almighty kick drum begins a rhythmic onslaught which will characterise the rest of the album. The percussion is not complicated; given Russom’s love for vintage equipment, (and presumably a disdain for computers) the limitations of his drum machine are apparent; drum lines often consist of no more than kicks, snares and hi-hats. But this is far from a drawback, rather, the simplicity of the percussion creates the sensation of a lumbering primeval menace, which, when partnered with a devastating sub-bass, make this music that is obviously intended to be felt as much as it is heard.
The press release for the album suggests that the six tracks which make it up follow a narrative line, telling “a story of clubbing and the long journey through the night and into the next day”. It’s tempting to dismiss this as spurious nonsense, but listening to the album in sequence reveals this description to be quite apt. “Death Tunnel” begins with a mid-tempo piece of proto-acid which slowly builds in its intensity, reducing the rate of the primary melodic line half way through to give the structure some breathing space. It’s a really simple trick, but one which really elevates the track to a higher plateau.
“World Eater” follows, and builds upon the intensity of “Death Tunnel”. “World Eater”, unlike “Death Tunnel” is held together with a raw synth melody, which concludes several times during the lengthy running time, each time peaking and exploding with increasing ferocity; a ferocity followed through in the next two tracks, “Dominatron” and “Anthem”. Both of these tracks are in excess of 130 BPM and are the most relentless pieces of dance music I’ve heard for some time. The delayed synth ripples and searing bass of “Dominatron” bring to mind Vitalic’s “La Rock 01″; from its dense structure, sonic tendrils emerge to create a nightmare Medusan image, something particularly apt considering that it is supposed to be the female counterpart to the male “Anthem”, both sides dancing opposite each other in a “possession ritual”.
After the sonic assault of “Dominatron” and “Anthem”, the final third is slightly more calm; “Dreamcatcher” mirrors “World Eater” in its structure, but the melody is triumphant rather than doom laden, playing out with all the gusto of an 80s hair metal guitar solo. It slowly starts to break apart into something altogether more psychedelic in the last third, with two opposing melodic elements playing off against each other until it resolves itself into something more sedate. “Dawn”, the final track, is the perfect end to the narrative, its slow pace and meandering arrangement perfectly captures the sluggish energy of a night’s end.
Thankfully, despite it’s prog rock concept album trappings, Black Meteoric Star is refreshingly free of clichés; Russom has created six tracks which exist entirely in a space of his own design. And whatever mythology Russom has created around this music, the fact is most people will listen to this without any knowledge of it; but Russom demonstrates a sonic mastery through Black Meteoric Star which doesn’t require a story to enjoy the concept.
Listen:> Black Meteoric Star - Death Tunnel
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Black Meteoric Star is available now on DFA Records
Buy the CD from Boomkat
