Review: Ex-Easter Island Head ‘Norther’
With eight releases under their belt, the UK’s minimalist experimentalist Ex-Easter Island Head are back with their latest full-length Norther. The title in meteorological terms refers to a cold wind that blows down from the North, but it’s not only this windy weather that characterises their new eclectic, less complex than their previous works sound.
Norther is a six-track album that musically goes back and forth tracing their continuously growing musical experimentation that brings out some of the most musical influences of their career. Their first release came to light in 2010 exposing their hypnotic improvised tribal guitar sound in three movements explored with Mallet Guitars One that then continued with phase two and three.
This is a band that likes to explore in their own way, the rhythmicity of sound through the use of guitar constant, monotone rhythms and the minimal drum beat played with real patience and style that sometimes brings to mind the syncopated drums of Ryan Jewel and the more complex soundtracks of Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Their tribal rhythms go further than a single note as they prefer to immerse themselves in ritual guitar beats and atmospheric soundscapes built with loops that cross an ocean of orchestral sounds. It’s easy to get together making music through jamming, but having each other’s mind connected with one another, makes each session worthwhile to the point that they can create a simple and mesmerised atmosphere which intertwines in various structural layers, giving your mind images of astral fields derived from each of their natural connections, not only with music, but within themselves too.
diverse, timeless and magnificent atmospheres that transport you to landscapes of enlightened, stratospheric beauty…
The band’s musical influences are clear to be heard, they mostly come from the notable and seminal experimental American guitarists such as Rhys Chatham and Glen Branca. But digging a bit further, you realise their music is also touched by a breath of sonic reminiscence that comes from listening to The Durutti Column’s Vini Reilly album or Charles Hayward of This Heat/Camberwell Now fame.
But their musical ferment is part of their journey of breaking away from ordinary musical patterns. This led them to involve musicians who introduced more ethereal musical landscapes oriented towards a classical facet to the constant evolution of their music. You can hear the kraut rhythms in the title track Norther. The linear hypnotic constant drumming reminiscence of a Jamaican steel drum in Easter, and the eerie, dark and quasi cavernous experimentalism born from moments of internal reflection that comes out in Loadstone, the last song placed as the album’s closing.
Norther mixed up all these elements to create a well-crafted album intended to bring to life diverse, timeless and magnificent atmospheres that transport you to landscapes of enlightened, stratospheric beauty for a mind-healing process.
Label: Rocket Recordings
Band Links: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Twitter | Instagram
Scribed by: Domenico ‘Mimmo’ Caccamo
