Terror’s Horns
“Sentences needn’t be longwinded. Keep the language concise” are two short sentences from a fellow 2011 Fluid reviewer that touch on the long/short LP ideas Natural Snow Buildings have prolifically proliferated since their early 2000s rise to under-the-radar recognition. Yes, a big three- or in the case of NSB, up to 7-hour long record is welcome in some circumstances, but sometimes you just need attenuation wheat for the feat to move your beliefs. Here in ‘Terror’s Horns’ we have the standard 45 minute LP length making a point with Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte.
In a gruellingly amazing spell of austere emotionality that runs like charged blood pressure throughout the record, likenings can be made to Barn Owls high profile ‘Lost In The Glare’ LP from 2011. That album contained my fave track of 2011, ‘Midnight Tide’, and the aggressively soul-searing power of ‘Terror’s Horns’ goes straight to the boundary of the tear viaduct. It is simply engulfing, overwhelming music, like being part of some pagan ritual on the other side of the tracks.
‘Twilight Bells’ exemplifies the topsy-turvy magic on display, ricocheting like a hatchet when the luck’s going against you. The sheer potential of the chords are ships in the night that break down with the guitar implementation like cricket stumps. But bridged by vocal debris that scrapes at the prefrontal cortex with a ballsy finish, a nothing stroke. As if the ashes of an ancient ghost have come to smash down your boundaries with considerable aplomb.
On tracks including ‘King In Yellow’ the border between searing sunshine swing and Mehdi Amezianes estranged spirit vocals broadly tick along with no abandon and a sense of mortality. Right in the corridors of uncertainty so the LP flows, and after supper at the candlelit forest fire, the musical ritual turns your psyche on its head.