The press release for the new Smote album Genog describes the music as “transcendence through repetition beamed via an aesthetic vision steeped in mystery” That pretty much sums things up for this excellent release on Rocket Recordings. Starting with the opening title track we are treated to Eastern influenced sounds layered with chants and a plodding rhythm that just keeps chugging along throughout it’s ten minutes. Somehow the repetition doesn’t get boring and creates a beautiful drone that is eventually punctuated by a nice touch of fuzzed out guitar. “Hlaf” follows with a quieter approach without as much the fuzz but there are still some well placed fuzz stab to add to the mix but with the addition of the flute. Im not sure chaotic is the right word but there is a bit of a nervous feeling or a bit of a twitchy feel in the repetition on this one. “Fenhop” is the shortest track on the album at five minutes and starts of with a medium to high pitched drone which flows into some primal drumming with flute flutters as a lower pitched guitar drone works it’s way in. “Lof” is a much heavier piece which combines the Eastern elements with a dirge like guitar to create a much darker feel that builds throughout the piece and actually gets quite noisy. The album closer is the eleven minute “Banhus” which in many ways combines all the elements from the album into one track theres a bit of free form noise thrown into the mix as it builds with a controlled chaos to its noisy conclusion.
Another excellent release from Smote who seem to be developing a nice following. I highly recommend searching out their other releases. Smote are doing a small tour with most of the dates in June. I highly recommend attending a gig. They were awesome live last year at Roadburn.
Released by Rocket Recordings
