Carlos Suero / Illman & Gyakusatsu - Lunacy
I remember the excellent Hansenbyó by Carlos Suero & Yama-Biko from 2018, I also remember the sheer brutality of the countless releases by Spanish power-electronics acta Gyakusatsu. Not sure who Illman is, maybe it's one of Carlos´s nicknames? Anyways, these two cult acts have teamed up on a limited cassette album, released by Marbre Negre. Carlos Suero on the A-side, and Gyakusatsu on the B-side. The title of this split album has been named Lunacy, and the artwork itself shows a murky forest in greyscale but... I think that there is an extra layer in the picture. I can see something transparent in there, but I cannot recognize what it is. There is something of a shape there alright, maybee it is meant to illustrate lunacy somehow? The kind of phantasmagoric images that the crazed and tortured mind can create? Anyways, let us check up on what kind of lunacy these two fellows have cooked up for us.
The first track with Carlos Suero / Illman is called Brains. A doomy-heavy synth starts the track, with a sharp and punctuating drum machine to add it up. Extra layers of windy synth drones give the mood a scary touch, then come the vocals. Excellent sounding vocals, not a trace of distortion or heavy effects either... the natural sound of mentally menacing vocals! There is a mild reverb effect on the vocals, but that is just it... sounds like a has been recorded in a very small claustrophobic room. Classic industrial sound, makes me think of classic stuff like Blackhouse.
The second track is simply called Do. Again, excellent drum-machine rhythms and a haunting atmosphere. Vocal parts doing their part, more of a Skinny Puppy vocal without the effects (now that I think of it). Love the frustration in the vocal expression here, the idea of Lunacy can really be felt here! No light at the end of the tunnel here, really dark stuff!
The third and last track with Carlos Suero / Illman is called Fell. From the beginning, the listener can hear the presence of a sucking void. The drums have a slight martial feel here, while the vocals add the last desperate mood to the A-side. Lovely kind of asylum feel to the Carlos Suero tracks, very claustrophobic and very intense.
We flip the cassette and continue with the B-side with Gyakusatsu. It doesn´t start like the former tracks, it does start all right... with a narrowing screaming microphone sound. Or is it the sound of a loose cord somewhere, either way... the listener wakes up on another sound level. Multi-layered industrial harsh noise. Lots of distortion, lots of screaming, and lots of feedback, and samples. The track is called After Dark...Lunacy. Power-electronics for the fans of HNW I think.
Love the idea of having a split with 2 acts sounding VERY different from each other. As a listener you have two different acts, having their interpretation of lunacy. Whereas Carlos Suero works more on mood before action, Gyakusatsu has more of an action-before-mood approach. In other words, a truly schizophrenic sound experience!
