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Pan Sonic, "Kesto"
Mute
Following the Finnish-born duo's most intense live journey, the groupreleases their most ambitious recording to date. In the three yearssince Aaltopiiri,live opportunities have taken them to the most remote corners of theworld including Europe, Spain, the Americas and Easter Island, this isall following that now famous ad in The Wire magazine asking people in interesting places to put them up and pay them a small amount. Kestois four CDs of all new material, recorded over the last year in Berlin,but with sources and inspiriations from the group's extensive travels.Pan Sonic fans know that while the group's instrumentation remainssomewhat constant, their styles bounce back and forth betweenear-bleeding beats to quiet drones or heady field recordings. Unlike onAaltopiiri, where everything was sort of all mixed in together, on Kesto,things are separated. The first two discs are the fucking sexiestthings I've heard all year: pounding with an unparallelled abrasivebeauty, the beats that mark many of their most receptive live rock 'nroll (or at least as close as Pan Sonic can come to rock) performances.On these discs are 140 minutes of vicious assaults and trademark PanSonic sounds, where the group even pays homage to a number of theirinfluences like Bruce Gilbert, Keiji Haino, Suicide, and ThrobbingGristle, mimicking sounds they've done in almost reinterpretive pieces.Disc three begins the quiet half of the set, with songs that arefrequently filled with the unfilling sounds of silence. It opens with atoilet bowl flush and continues for the rest of the tracks mostly fromprocessed sounds of non-musical sources. While discs one and two areperfect blasting music for a night on the town, disc three isdefinitely something that is best at home, as the silences in oddenvironments trigger the "is this thing still playing?" reaction overand over again. The set ends with the CD-long track "Säteily,"(translation: "Radiation") which is a chilly 61:16 minute drone. Itwould easily make any fan of Time Machines purr like a kitten.It's perfect for lulling any beast (party animal or other) to sleepafter a multi-disc set which could be best described as an endurancetest! While this is undoubtedly the best multi-disc set of new materialreleased by anybody this year, I do have one minor issue with theflimsy packaging, which came unglued only on the second day, so bewarned on that account, but don't be afraid of the aural treasuresinside.
Following the Finnish-born duo's most intense live journey, the groupreleases their most ambitious recording to date. In the three yearssince Aaltopiiri,live opportunities have taken them to the most remote corners of theworld including Europe, Spain, the Americas and Easter Island, this isall following that now famous ad in The Wire magazine asking people in interesting places to put them up and pay them a small amount. Kestois four CDs of all new material, recorded over the last year in Berlin,but with sources and inspiriations from the group's extensive travels.Pan Sonic fans know that while the group's instrumentation remainssomewhat constant, their styles bounce back and forth betweenear-bleeding beats to quiet drones or heady field recordings. Unlike onAaltopiiri, where everything was sort of all mixed in together, on Kesto,things are separated. The first two discs are the fucking sexiestthings I've heard all year: pounding with an unparallelled abrasivebeauty, the beats that mark many of their most receptive live rock 'nroll (or at least as close as Pan Sonic can come to rock) performances.On these discs are 140 minutes of vicious assaults and trademark PanSonic sounds, where the group even pays homage to a number of theirinfluences like Bruce Gilbert, Keiji Haino, Suicide, and ThrobbingGristle, mimicking sounds they've done in almost reinterpretive pieces.Disc three begins the quiet half of the set, with songs that arefrequently filled with the unfilling sounds of silence. It opens with atoilet bowl flush and continues for the rest of the tracks mostly fromprocessed sounds of non-musical sources. While discs one and two areperfect blasting music for a night on the town, disc three isdefinitely something that is best at home, as the silences in oddenvironments trigger the "is this thing still playing?" reaction overand over again. The set ends with the CD-long track "Säteily,"(translation: "Radiation") which is a chilly 61:16 minute drone. Itwould easily make any fan of Time Machines purr like a kitten.It's perfect for lulling any beast (party animal or other) to sleepafter a multi-disc set which could be best described as an endurancetest! While this is undoubtedly the best multi-disc set of new materialreleased by anybody this year, I do have one minor issue with theflimsy packaging, which came unglued only on the second day, so bewarned on that account, but don't be afraid of the aural treasuresinside.- Pakoisvoima (transl: Fugalforce) - from CD 1
- Ilma (transl: Air) - from CD 4
- Säteily (transl: Radiation) - from CD 4
