How lovely is it that I can write, “I’ve never heard anything like this before,”? As seems to be his practice, George Korein has upped the weird ante, this time with an album of noisy-ambient corpse-themed program music. Yep, there’s flying corpses who make crash landings, pulsing corpses, and even a pesky encroaching “Rotodrone;” which is one of those you-know-it-when-you-hear-it type of things.
Korein builds these unlikely themes from even more unlikely sounds– piercing electronic tones, dissonant loops of feedback, distorted horns, Helena Espvall’s cello, kissing noises, and a sizeable portion of his own unique approach to guitar. In many ways, the enjoyment of “Another Corpse” is watching Korein keep it all up in the air. Overall, it reminds me of what my old driving instructor used to say, “it’s a series of small adjustments”… well, expect when it isn’t. At times, particularly during the black metal drum pounding of “Pulsing Corpse,” Korein crashes this bizarre vehicle just for the fun of it.
“Another Corpse” does seem to have a bit of structure to it, though, with the somewhat cold and austere beginnings gradually leading towards the introduction of more organic instrumentation. I’m not saying it’s boogie rock, but hey– a shift from the frequency test of “Gleaming Corpse II” towards (gasp!) vocals in “Liftoff” is probably significant. Besides, Korein’s last disc had songs like “Moved By Your Emoticon,” so clearly this cracked genius/800-pound gorilla can go anywhere he damn well pleases.
If that happens to be boogie rock, I’m there.
“Another Corpse” is released as a split venture via Majuma Music and Bat Hot Axe.
August 13, 2008 at 10:04 am
[...] place to plant one’s flag? George Korein may have beat Kasselman to it with last year’s “Another Corpse,” but he’s going to have to play Leif Ericson to Kasselman’s [...]