Charalambides
Unknown Spin

Every now and then, I go back to read some reviews on Debaser, just for fun, to keep myself updated on the highs and lows of other people's opinions. But mostly, it's to depress myself further, whether I'm reading nonsense and frivolities (in which case I think about how idiotic and pathetic the masses are...), or whether I'm reading insights and brilliant speculations (and in this case I think about how idiotic and pathetic I am myself...). Only one question has been haunting me lately: "But who will kill the monster now that it lies with the blond tuft under the linden tree??" (T.W. Adorno).
I'm tormented by it, I turn off the damned TV, and I listen to this album... Christina Carter's voice in particular agitates and disturbs me... painful vocal notes, which shatter, chiseling into the skeletal and redundant dynamics of the guitars, leaving behind a veil of subliminal lightness. The title track never seems to end (about 30 minutes), making the listening of the remaining three tracks almost superfluous, as they now serve as a frame around the first.
Whispers and uncontrolled chaos are the guardians of my mind, a jumble of disconnected thoughts, decapitated emotions, emptied feelings; interchangeable, we all seem to be made from the same mold... don't say no, if one of you argues the usual refrain: "it's not true! I have my own personality, my past, my memories... blah bleh blah!!", you only expose yourself to ridicule (with the approval of those present...) and clearly confirm the flatness of your own considerations. We think about work, love, cars, guitars, vacations... we are the same, we cancel each other out... What need is there, then, to stubbornly huddle in search of the new, the unusual, the destiny of music, experimentation, electric or electronic, when you realize instead that silently predominating is the always different always-the-same??? And indeed, this music evokes a thousand other totally different ones, although minimalism ala Tony Conrad reigns supreme... some late '70s psychedelia, American country, a hint of Low (label mates...), mommy's bedtime stories... As usual, I've lost myself in the chaos of my lucid and at the same time clouded mind... lastly, a piece of advice.... If you have any problems with drugs, particularly with opiates and derivatives, psychotropic drugs, Xanax and similar crap, and you don't know how to get out of it without necessarily getting interned to do "socially useful" work (systematic exploitation of lives sent to waste...) at some recovery center like San Patrignano (torturers!).... this album is for you. If your sister was beaten with a wrench by her robust and strapping boyfriend, just because she went out for pizza with old school friends and didn't reply to the 11:30 PM text message... this album is for you and let her listen to it too.
Finally, if you're insisting on faded embraces, and you don't know how to tell your better half that, unfortunately for her/him, the roaring caravan of bodies is again catching your eye more and more insistently.... the same, this album is for you... but think carefully... Only those who have the courage to hold firmly to love can hope to deserve it.