Best of 2011 (eps) #1 LOCRIAN - Dort Ist Der Weg/Frozen in Ash (Flingco Sound)

Technically a 7" release, this is one of the finest releases in any format that I heard all year. What follows is my original long form review:

Attempting to cover Popol Vuh is a particularly treacherous venture. To begin with you are trespassing on hallowed ground. There is simply not much you can do to improve on Popol Vuh at their best. They are legends for a reason. Furthermore, their brand of experimental krautrock doesn't exactly reduce itself to amped-up easy covers of their songs. No one gains anything from knocking out a Popul Vuh cover live or otherwise. Yet, despite all odds, Locrian not only covers Popol Vuh's "Dort Ist Der Weg" successfully, they knock it way the hell out of the ballpark. Adding more than a touch of beefed-up sonics, Locrian maintains the spaciousness of Popol Vuh's original, but turn in a heavier and darker take on the piece. Admittedly, the band sounds less like Locrian, and more like a mixture of Slint and Amon Düül II initially, but by the end of the piece, once the dissonance and screeches take over, you'll remember that you are listening to a Locrian recording, and a very fine one at that. If anything it calls to mind the psychedelic blues metal of fellow traveller Horseback, who the band recently collaborated with on the spectacular "New Dominions" LP.

Side two is a Locrian original and one of their finest at that. "Frozen in Ash" is a blasted drone that owes far more to Xasthur than krautrock. Built on a guitar progression that calls to mind classic Norwegian black metal, the piece gets nastier and noisier as it plays out before dissolving into a brooding apocalyptic folk coda of piano and acoustic guitar before drummer Steven Hess shuts it all down with a galloping snare.

Taken as a whole this is Locrian at their most epic, and it is hard to believe that a simple 7" can contain such a massive statement in sound. Although combined these tracks make up a mere twelve minutes and thirty-five seconds, this feels like a proper album, if only because of the emotional and sonic ground covered. Few, if any, bands could achieve what Locrian have achieved here. Successful Popol Vuh cover aside, the real accomplishment is a recording that contains more variety and depth in less than a quarter hour than most bands can produce in an entire career.

Locrian "Dort ist der Weg/ Frozen in Ash 7" single" by flingco

LOCRIAN - The Clearing (Fan Death Records)

Locrain are at the top of the dark experimental music heap these days. Although their songs lack traditional form and structure, there a visceral quality to their music that recalls some of the most potent and powerful metal and post-rock. Last year's stunning genre-smashing "The Crystal World" made Locrian the band to pay attention to, while raising the bar for everyone else. Since then, they have produced a collaborative LP and single with the like-minded Horseback and the "Dort Ist Der Weg b/w Frozen in Ash" 7", which, for my money, is one of the best releases in any format this year. So to say that "The Clearing" was one of this year's most anticipated releases for me is a bit of an understatement. Even without hearing the whole thing, this was already a must have album among discerning music fans. Naturally, "The Clearing" not only lives up to expectations, but exceeds them to an extreme.

As amazing as "The Crystal World" was, the addition of drummer Steven Hess sounded at times like a guest player. A superb guest player, no doubt, but someone who seemed to be brought in to flesh out the sound of the album. Since that record, though, the trio of Hess, André Foisy and Terence Hannum have clearly coalesced as a group. "The Clearing" is their first long-form statement as the incredibly balanced band that they have become. Each member is essential here, and the success of the album's sound can be traced to the ability of each member to play off of each other. That fact is no more apparent than on opener "Chalk Point." The track, which sounds like the liturgy to a secret rite, finds the band at their doomiest, with Hess playing stately drums, Foisy offering up consistently scorching guitar, and Hannum's keyboards simultaneously stimulating while providing a tragic backdrop to the whole affair. Each player interlocks with the other to create a mood that captivates the listener with images of woods, black robes and bonfires where unspeakable things happen.

As awesome as "Chalk Point" is, it barely prepares the listener for "Augury in an Evaporating Tower." I'm not sure what the title means (other than it has something to do with the art of divination...in an evaporating tower), but I can promise you that it is intense as hell. This piece would come in at the climax in any awesome film, and it is surprising that anything else can follow it, but the ponderous and meditative "Coprolite" does so quite nicely. Foisy's melancholic acoustic guitar plays over Hannum's effects and Hess' thoughtful accents to make for what is oddly one of the most effective songs the band has produced. There is such a powerfully mournful feel to the piece that it cuts to the core of the listener in a way that precious little music does these days.

To close the album out, the band produces a nearly eighteen minute title track, which draws down everything that has come before into a singular pinpoint. The piece starts out somewhat reminiscent of Ennio Morricone's legendary soundtrack to "The Thing" before desperate screams pierce the soundfield and give way to a cavernous denouement. Over the next twelve minutes the band heaps effect on top of effect, instrument on top of instrument, to craft a cumulative and crushing drone that results in a blasted finale to what is a perfect record.

What is so stunning about "The Clearing" is how diverse the album is overall, even as it all sounds a part of a whole. The band explores a variety of approaches throughout, each successfully casting a consistent mood that leaves the listener feeling like they have taken a singular journey by record's end. If "The Crystal World" announced the presence of Locrian as the band to pay attention to, "The Clearing" solidifies their position as a powerhouse. Locrian is THE band that matters right now, and if you didn't know that already, "The Clearing" makes damn sure you do.

LOCRIAN - Dort Ist Der Weg/Frozen in Ash (Flingco Sound)

Attempting to cover Popol Vuh is a particularly treacherous venture. To begin with you are trespassing on hallowed ground. There is simply not much you can do to improve on Popol Vuh at their best. They are legends for a reason. Furthermore, their brand of experimental krautrock doesn't exactly reduce itself to amped-up easy covers of their songs. No one gains anything from knocking out a Popul Vuh cover live or otherwise. Yet, despite all odds, Locrian not only covers Popol Vuh's "Dort Ist Der Weg" successfully, they knock it way the hell out of the ballpark. Adding more than a touch of beefed-up sonics, Locrian maintains the spaciousness of Popol Vuh's original, but turn in a heavier and darker take on the piece. Admittedly, the band sounds less like Locrian, and more like a mixture of Slint and Amon Düül II initially, but by the end of the piece, once the dissonance and screeches take over, you'll remember that you are listening to a Locrian recording, and a very fine one at that. If anything it calls to mind the psychedelic blues metal of fellow traveller Horseback, who the band recently collaborated with on the spectacular "New Dominions" LP.

Side two is a Locrian original and one of their finest at that. "Frozen in Ash" is a blasted drone that owes far more to Xasthur than krautrock. Built on a guitar progression that calls to mind classic Norwegian black metal, the piece gets nastier and noisier as it plays out before dissolving into a brooding apocalyptic folk coda of piano and acoustic guitar before drummer Steven Hess shuts it all down with a galloping snare.

Taken as a whole this is Locrian at their most epic, and it is hard to believe that a simple 7" can contain such a massive statement in sound. Although combined these tracks make up a mere twelve minutes and thirty-five seconds, this feels like a proper album, if only because of the emotional and sonic ground covered. Few, if any, bands could achieve what Locrian have achieved here. Successful Popol Vuh cover aside, the real accomplishment is a recording that contains more variety and depth in less than a quarter hour than most bands can produce in an entire career. Absolute highest recommendation possible.

Locrian "Dort ist der Weg/ Frozen in Ash 7" single" by flingco

#5 LOCRIAN & HORSEBACK - New Dominions (Utech)

"New Dominions" is not a split between Locrian and Horseback, but rather a full-on collaboration that features members of both acts playing together on the record's two hauntingly bleak tracks. Not surprisingly the record is exactly what one would hope for from a collaboration between two of today's best blackened experimental artists. "The Gift" is the kind of cavernous dark soundworld that Locrian crafted on last year's "The Crystal World," while "Our Epitaph" is a doom dirge number that hypnotizes the listener, even as it marches them into an abyss of decay and demise. The only drawback to this record is that it leaves the listener needing more. Two songs of this sort of grim melancholia are simply not enough. Here is to hoping for another collaboration between these guys again, and soon.

BEST OF 2010 (albums) #10 LOCRIAN - The Crystal World (Utech)

Locrian crafted "The Crystal World's" nightmarish sound world out of remnants of krautrock, drone, post-rock and black metal to create their own unique brand of experimental terror. The album was inspired by J.G. Ballard's novel of the same name, which describes the earth's vegetation succumbing to an apocalyptic crystallization. The world that Ballard creates sparkles even as it devastates, and Locrian have perfectly captured that quality of glimmering beauty amidst inevitable destruction. What made the record the truly great work it is, and which resonated with so many (as evidenced by its appearances on numerous 'Best Of' lists for 2010), is the human heart that beats at the center of the album, making the darkness surrounding it that much more threatening. As a result, "The Crystal World" is 2010's most harrowing listening experience. Full review here.

Locrian - "At Night's End" Video (Stereogum Premiere) from stereogum on Vimeo.

BEST OF 2010 (albums) Honorable Mention

These were all more than worthy albums that I highly recommend, but because I'm only counting down 25, I'm going to have to list them here in a rather generic fashion, even though there is nothing generic about any of these excellent records. Here they are in no particular order...

MOGWAI - Special Moves (Rock Action Records)
GEOFF MULLEN - Bongo Closet(Type)
LUDICRA - The Tenant (Profound Lore)
WATAIN - Lawless Darkness (Season Of Mist)
LOCRIAN - Territories (Small Doses)
ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI - Before Today (4AD)
THE NATIONAL - High Violet (4AD)
XASTHUR - Portal of Sorrow (Hydra Head)

LOCRIAN - The Crystal World (UTECH)

Locrian's "The Crystal World" starts out deep inside of the earth in an endless cave that seems like an abyss. Stalagmites twinkle just enough to create a partial circle of light, but beyond the radius of visibility, things slither and crawl on the walls and floor. Then you hear it. Somewhere deeper down in the cave is a monster, something that speaks, screams and wails in desperation and anger, something that you know will kill you if it finds you. It sounds closer and closer as the earth around you hums with increasing intensity. It's as if death is coming to meet you instead of waiting for you to stumble upon it. This is what it is to enter Locrian's "The Crystal World."

The Chicago trio of André Foisy, Terence Hannum and Steven Hess craft their nightmarish sound world out of remnants of krautrock, drone, post-rock and black metal creating their own unique brand of experimental terror. The album was inspired by J.G. Ballard's novel "The Crystal World," wherein the earth's vegetation succumbs to an apocalyptic crystallization. The world that Ballard creates sparkles even as it devastates, and Locrian have captured perfectly that quality of glimmering beauty amidst inevitable destruction.

The record follows a narrative arch with one song bleeding into the next to make for an audial journey into the heart of darkness. The impending doom that informs opener "Triumph of Elimination" quietly pervades "At Night's End," which follows. The track eventually explodes with pounding percussion, epic guitar squalls and a voice that has turned from hateful to haunted. One can imagine anguished flight from the terror in the darkness as the song plays out. The band ups the ante on the phenomenal title track which mixes minimalist repeating guitar patterns against varying drones of ascending madness and doom while Hess' drums stumble around the piece like a battered and exhausted victim of unfathomable horrors.

"Pathogens" begins the record's second half with drones that resemble distant emergency sirens, rising and falling in intensity. Inevitably the horror creeps back into the immediate as squelching electronics and guitar approach closer and closer to the foreground until they eventually overtake it along with with Hess' rattling tom beats.

With "Obsidian Facades" that desperate hate-filled voice returns, screaming out from the depths. A steady dark guitar drone underlies the piece, while haunted atmospherics swirl over the surface calling to mind Paysage d'Hiver's "Kerker," Sunn 0)))'s "Black One" and Nortt to some degree. The track ends with a shimmering guitar refrain reminiscent of Labradford that offers a tiny fragment of hope. "Elevations and Depths" brings the album to a close in a manner that is powerful, beautiful and deeply moving, even as it snuffs out that tiny fragment of hope. Acoustic guitars and harmoniums mix with all of the elements the band have mined thus far to make for an intense swelling finale that is tragic in tone. The horror wins at the end of "The Crystal World," but not without a good fight, making the denouement that much more heartbreaking.

The effect of "Elevations" belies the grimness of "The Crystal World," and exposes a deeper humanity that runs throughout the record. There is warm beating heart at the center of the album that elevates it far beyond simple atmospheric dark ambient or doom, and makes for a deeply effecting musical experience. As I shape up my "best of" list for 2010, Locrian's "The Crystal World" looks to be a shoe-in for both its unique musical vision, and it's gut-wrenching emotionality. Highly recommended.

"At Night's End"

Locrian - "At Night's End" Video (Stereogum Premiere) from stereogum on Vimeo.

"Obsidian Facades"

Obsidian Facades from Terence Hannum on Vimeo.