Le Mur: Silentia Nova

Approach Silentia Nova with an open mind and all manner of strange things suddenly begin to happen...monks chant along to bass lines which bulge deeper than a fat cats cavernous pockets, hypnotic barrages of organ combine with sharp, simple beats to distort your mind into another dimension and Jazz can be heard to mix gaily with Heavy Metal as riffs distort into funkalicious delights of free-formness which undoubtedly have been slaved over for hours on end. An odd mix? Obviously! Yet German trio Le Mur seem to have a natural talent for making it all sound as natural and talented as can be. I guess you're guessing it isn't any easy trip? Well of course it is, after all Le Mur call it Heavy-Dark-Trip-Rock. And obviously it isn't, for if the mind is closed, distracted or simply fatigued, then the effort to make sense of it all feels like a penance, not a pleasure.

"Sun" is a surprisingly dark beacon in the sky, Matthias Graef's wailing guitars howling at the bleak spot for mercy, Janine Ficklscherer's bass scything the gloom in a deliberate, unhinged manner. Drummer Georgios Dosis decides the back seat is where he'll sit, until boom, crash, wallop, he clatters all around your head. Graef's vocals bring no air of calm, a manic holler merely adding to the clamour, before Black Sabbath are wheeled into view via a riff of monstrous proportions and the constant shimmer-smack of cymbals. And remember, that's only one song of seven and three of those are longer and more convoluted.

In the end, the most impressive aspect of Silentia Nova, the first in a trilogy of linked releases, is that it never disappears up its own un-sun-shining place. It may veer close on occasion and there's no denying that some will run for the hills screaming at the strange mix of high end technique and lo-fi sound; the production raw, rich and riotous – almost as though early Porcupine Tree was let loose in a church organ festooned riff factory for the harshly inclined. However for those of a braver disposition it does all start to make sense.

Whether through the shout and shove of the title track, the Funk n' Roll of "O.m.e.n. - Creation Of A New Silence", or all out bass-sax extravaganza of "Ghost Track", Le Mur constantly challenge you to keep pace with their vision. That they do so with a smile on their faces and for the most part, a grin on yours is what makes the effort from both parties worthwhile.

Fittingly Silentia Nova is available in vinyl format and even more apt, is that for such a bright, yet dark release the first 500 of those are coloured. Get in quick to have your brain spun at almost the same velocity as the record which causes it...

Track Listing
1. O.m.e.n. – A Decision Of Despair
2. Technical Progress And Other Suicide Stuff
3. Ghost Track
4. Die Nacht Der Lemuren – Part 2
5. Sun
6. Silentia Nova
7. O.m.e.n. – Creation Of A New Silence

Added: July 21st 2014
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Le Mur online
Hits: 1689
Language: english

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