THE HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA (The Politics Of The Irredeemable) CD
If you listen to the second album of THE HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA, it's like opening the gates to hopelessness, anger and isolation. There is no light and warmth, but a cold tunnel of endless darkness. The implementation of their musical ideas is massive and there's not much time to catch a breath. Very often the word claustrophobic is used to describe music like this, but here it is more than appropriate. The heaviness alone of this album is absolutely crushing and it is quite remarkable what this two guys are doing here. One of them was a former member of Creation Is Crucifixion, but unfortunately I have never heard this band, as well as the first record of THE HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA named 'Means Without Ends'. That's why I can't draw comparisons to the new one. Apart of the heaviness of this album it's noticeable that there's a strong dark ambient influence as, for example, in the first song 'Progress'. Sometimes it sounds as if Swans would collide with The Grey Wolves' 'Blood & Sand' album. The first part of 'Mores' is pure dark ambient, before THE HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA unleash a destructive whirl with the second part.
This apocalyptic monstrosity can destroy each optimistic thought, if you're enter into it. I would add Khanate to the previous comparison, but that does't mean that THE HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA tries to imitate any of this bands. In particular the integration of black electronic ambience takes care of an almost unique listening experience. Every once in a while a severely distorted voice appears in the thick fog of sound, but it's more like a decorative accessory parts. After listening to the CD for a few times you feel that this album is a cohesive unit, and I wonder why this soundscape has been divided into six tracks, especially since there are no breaks between the songs. But actually, that's not really important. Once again Crucial Blast Records has proved a quite good hand on this, so it shouldn't be surprising that this album is only made for a minority. If you like the musical aesthetics of industrial and harsh noise, combined with creeping heaviness than it's not wrong to buy a copy of 'The Politics Of The Irredeemable'. This is very good music.
(KK)