Neolithic Nation - Atavism
Another new act has had its debut out on Steinklang. Includes members from various Russian noise/power-electronics acts. It came out last year on a beautiful and limited digipack (100 copies). The band is called Neolithic Nation and the album is named Atavism. Neolithic means the age after the stone-age era, and Atavism is all about what we have genetically gained (or lost) through the various stages of our biological evolution. Quite a heavy theme right? Makes me think of Devo´s idea of D-Evolution something... whatever... Let´s get on with it now!.
The first track on the album is called Die Neu Zeit. The intro includes merry martial background music from the old days and the sound of whimpering dogs/wolves. All of this ends with a blast, and the power-electronics machine starts at this point. A lovely chunky and rhythmic noise sound, Grey-Wolves´ish vocals in German, and various distorted machine sound blend in very nicely.
In the second track Materia I, we´re back to a basic and back-to-traditions industrial sound. Early Test Dept or Z´ev kind of. Rumbling and bashing industrial sounds of steel and machinery.
The third track Spirit of Titanism has a really good intro. A cool and evil-sounding synth sound that pulsates and runs through your speaker like tiny waves of distorted sound. Some cool sounding and distorted spoken words here and there as well. Lots of stuff going on in the background, and lots of flesh on the soundscape here.
The fourth track is... (surprise!) Materia II. Again, sort of old-school industrial mood vibe going on. Takes me back to SPK... you know. Evil hospital with evil doctors and so on. The cool soundtrack feels, I wouldn't mind if the track was a bit longer.
The fifth track Flames Of Our Will is a basic (and modern) power-electronics thing with all the workings you might expect. Genocide Organ fans could dig this. It really helps with the field recordings going on, and puts extra flavor to it.
I will jump over the materia track, and then further to the seventh track called Rabies. Death-industrial moods start the track. A thumping and slow track with a lot of heavy atmospheres attached to it. Almost depressing and doom-laden piece. So far the best track on the album I think. Most unique if you ask me.
The last track on the album which I will review would be the last track, simply called Atavus. The minimalistic dark ambiance and eerie sounding breathing sounds. The sounds and the mood jumps between your speakers. A very good ritualistic industrial track, not far from the likes of MZ.412 or Valefor.
I can feel that a decent amount of work has been poured into this album. There are some good moments, and there are some bad moments. The bad moments would be the ones where you are thinking (as an old power-electronics/industrial nerd ) ´Ok... I have actually heard this before so why listen?´. A bit more of the think-new idea would/could help in this matter. The vocals would be a good example, the same kind of Grey Wolves/Genocide-Organ vocals of course. When so many have done it, it gets a bit boring in the end.
The good thing about the album is moments when they do try to think about new ideas. I love the field recordings, and some of the distorted sounds are great too. Not to mention the overall quality of the sound recorded, which is done really good. But I would say, it´s a good and decent place to start for a new power-electronics fan. But for an old one?...
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