THEOLOGIAN & STROM.ec: Hubrizine – CD (Malignant Records) 2013
$40.00
Proper and overdue re-issue of a limited edition 12 cassette on Annihilvs released back in 2012. Hubrizine was two years in the making and features source material by Finland’s mighty STROM.ec, undoubtedly heralded as masters of the PE oeuvre, as reinterpreted and re-engineered by Theologian, in celebration of a shared appreciation for the works of Philip K. Dick. From the opening moments, what immediately strikes you is that this probably isn’t what you thought it was going to be, given the history of both acts. Sure, there are a good deal of passages of volatility and focused intensity as you might expect, but they are complimented by an equal amount of passages of hallucinatory ambience and cold, serene atmospherics. It’s this very dichotomy that makes this such a masterful recording, and listening to it one sitting becomes almost mandatory just to wrap your head around the mind fuckery that unravels over its 7 tracks, as celestial drift and horizon filling textures collide with sudden eruptions of militantly hostile vocals, machine clatter, blistering frequency pulsations and writhing distortion. The title track is clearly the centerpiece here…an epic and sprawling 18 minute track of climatic and shimmering drones that disintegrates into corrosive generator hum and contorted loops with an insane vocal outburst that rivals any STROM.ec output ever created. Hubrizine clearly takes heavy electronics in a direction where few have dared go, and few will ever match. In fold out presentation folder with artwork by Andre Coelho
