I usually don’t care about artwork. For
art that’s built with sound, noise music should probably have absolutely
no regard for whatever’s wrapped around a CDr or cassette. But the
first thing I noticed about “Obsession” was its imagery. The literal
first thing you see when you look at it is this ass. It’s a woman’s ass,
to be exact; she’s bent over, complete with a thong, and an 80s
hairstyle. The ass is so perfectly positioned to conform to the rule of
thirds that your eyes just automatically go to it. Around her ass is a
sea of signifiers. There’s a font that looks like it was printed on an
early Macintosh computer. Next to the font are lines that should be
glowing neon in a strip mall. Some collage eyes and a lamp are next to
that half naked chick. On the back of the jewel case, we find the
Minotaur logo mixing Coil’s black sun with a buzzsaw. There’s
appropriately some bondage porn inside the foldout too. All in all, it’s
probably the best artwork I’ve seen in years. It’s beautiful and made
me as titillated as I was when I first laid eyes on a GWAR, Misfits, or
Marilyn Manson release. And let’s be honest. Those were the highest
achievements of rock ever.
I usually don’t give blow-by-blow
descriptions of every track on an album. It’s boring for readers, and
more importantly, it’s tedious for me to write. However, “Obsession” is a
portal into another dimension. If I don’t write you a guidebook, then
you’ll be utterly lost. You’ll also lose your mind in the process of
listening to it. The album’s opener has some whispers juxtaposed with
extremely high-pitched tones. It’s a harsh introduction and pushes the
listener away. Don’t be discouraged. The second track sounds like a
cover of Bloodminded; it’s short and beeps really fast. It also has some
screaming. In contrast, the following “Solider” is longer and
surprisingly features beats made from a cheap drum machine. It reminds
me of what Prurient’s been making lately in collaboration with Alberich.
I’ll talk about the fourth track later. Anyway, the fifth is full of PE
and industrial nods. The rhythm has the quality of machinery during
peak hours of production. There’s also a fitting line about the “chain
of a slave.” The song ends with the equally unnerving observation: “she
smells like honey.” Track six, “The Hunger in her Womb,” is just filthy
PE. It begins with a low drone that quickly mutates into a pitch shifted
and looped synthesizer. It’s immensely similar to track ten, the
closer, in that it too follows a simple PE formula. “Blurred by the
Violence Pt. 2” interestingly copies the exact same beat on the third
song. Yet, the vocals are pitch shifted down to an almost comical slow
motion crawl. And it would be comical if it didn’t feel like a serial
killer returning to the scene of a crime. It would also be a lot less
creepy if the drumbeat didn’t abruptly change into the sound of
gunshots. At this point, you begin to realize there’s a narrative
emerging about a sexually obsessed murderer. I, unfortunately, had to
eerily find out later that the lyrics on “Obsession” were randomly
chosen from Anais Nin’s Delta of Venus. If you’re unfamiliar, Delta of
Venus is 40s erotica on the subject of abuse, prostitution, and
homosexuality as seen from the perspective of a female. Anyway, the
eighth track sounds like another Bloodyminded cover. Finally, the second
to last track, “The Hunger in her Womb Pt. 2“,” is the most
experimental. It finds Minotaur heavily relying upon vocals looped over
and over again until they collapse. It is the chain of a slave.
I usually don’t get excited about noise
music these days. To say that the genre is dying is an understatement.
Lineups that used to pack clubs in major cities are struggling to find
basement venues. Bands that used to go on successful national and
international tours have disbanded. Worse, the music itself is typically
lifeless nowadays. But there’s one exception to be found on Minotaur’s
“Obsession.” The fourth track has a brutal rhythm that makes me
uncontrollably headbang. The beat was probably put through an 8-bit
filter on GarageBand, but it’s effective nonetheless. It’s even more so
with the vocals. The track starts off with another pitch shifted
microphone. But this time the voice sounds like the narrator on Mortal
Kombat who yells fight and does the countdowns – I think it’s Shao Kahn,
but I’m not sure. In any case, the combination is lethal and causes one
to suspect there’s a deeper, creepier story lurking within “Obsession” –
besides Nin’s Delta of Venus. If you happen to be a closeted fan of
extreme, dirty power electronics qua Twodeadslutsonegoodfuck, Consumer
Electronics, Whitehouse, Yellow Tears, Grunt, Bloodyminded, and Nicole
12, then buy now!
1 Blurred by the Violence
2 Lilith was Cold
3 Solider
4 Possession
5 Honey
6 The Hunger in her Womb
7 Blurred by the Violence Pt. 2
8 Her Blood was Fire
9 Possession Pt. 2
10 The Hunger in her Womb Pt. 2
