DIVIDE & DISSOLVE - Insatiable

This for once is a little review which I actually expected to drop much later. Because even though the new album of Divide and Dissolve - who at this point are pretty much Takiaya Reed with alternating drummers - is already out there since April, my plan was to buy it directly from the merch table in October.

Unfortunately their Hamburg date clashes with another tour, which I heavy-heartedly had to proritize over this body-shaking Sludge guitar devastation/meditation, so I ordered "Insatiable" earlier - and here we are!

DIVIDE & DISSOLVE - Insatiable (green vinyl LP) (2025)

To noone's surprise the album of course confirms that the choice not to experience this sound live onboard the MS Stubnitz again (like two years ago) wasn't an easy one.

It's safe to say that Takiaya Reed, the black half African-, half Native American woman, who lives in Australia, plays Jazz saxophone as well as ridiculously crushing Doom Metal guitar and has also just written her first symphony for BBC, has been defying more expectations by breakfast than most people do in weeks.

However Divide and Dissolve is not a completely unpredictable project, but one which combines a pretty specific concept, which always leaves enough room for little surprises by default. In that spirit "Insatiable" once again fulfills the promise coming with the band's name while still sounding fresh.

There are basically two kinds of Divide and Dissolve tracks:

One often starts "with atmospheric textures, made out of looped soprano saxophone and/or keyboards. Those then suddenly get crushed by droning Doom or dirty Noise Rocks riffs, while the loop still is around somewhere far in the background. The guitar tone is devastatingly crunchy, the interaction with the drums enormously heavy, but also quite loose in a chaotic, very primal way, which in its core is much more emotionally expressive than it even is Metal. And at some point, without a really concluding resolution... it just ends somehow. Sometimes that happens with, sometimes without the resurfacing of the initial loop." And I just stole this whole paragraph from my own review of the last album "Systemic".

The other compositions, which make up almost half of the album's tracklist are interludes, which focus on the keys or saxophone - or even bring in experimentations with Reed's voice, which normally is only active at shows during her long-ass announcements; she's probably one of the most talkative instrumental musicians I've ever seen.

The common factor, the golden thread running through all ten tracks, is that nothing is done in a way, which even when viewed through a niche Doom/Noise or Avantgarde lens, feels like a well-trodden conventional path. No, a Divide and Dissolve album doesn't sound like a Metal band compiling their latest bangers, but much more like a (mostly) instrumental story, a soundtrack, which seemingly rather driven by intuition and the invisible story's momentarily demands than songwriting, flows from scene to scene without even caring for its music-theoretical categorization.

So what's the takeway? Basically everything remains the same, but different - as always. And as long as there's no herd of copycats to be seen approaching from anywhere, that is definitely a good thing.

Atmospheric, eery, immersive, agitative and heavy as a bite of dark matter hidden in your cereals - Divide and Dissolve remain unsatiable.

DIVIDE & DISSOLVE und CHURCHLICKERS live auf der MS Stubnitz, Hamburg (18. September 2023)

Ahoi! Am Montag haben ging es mal wieder an Bord der MS Stubnitz, Lieblingsadresse für obskure Advantgarde und jede Art von experimentellem Zeugs in Hamburg. Aus der Konserve lief Kayo Dots "Coffins On Io"-Album, dann u.a. Radare und Earth. Da weiß man doch gleich, worauf man eingestimmt wird!

Der Schiffsrumpf war für Wochenbeginn und überschaubaren Bekanntheitsgrad der Headliner einigermaßen respektabel gefüllt. Anscheinend hatte der lokale Opener hier erfolgreich einige Besucher den Arsch auf die Elbe bewegen lassen. Und das nicht unbegründet.

CHURCHLICKERS

Besetzt mit Gitarre, Drums und Klavier (plus weiterer Elektronik und Sampler) spielte das Trio Churchlickers instrumentalen Post Rock, der zwar oft leicht bis düster atmosphärisch daherkam und sich dafür auch aus geduldigem Ambient herauswabernd musste, der aber auch mal unvermittelt ruppiger werden konnte, und dabei in fürs Genre ungewohnter Weise ungeschliffen punkig gab. Das war dann gerade von der Schießbude aus auch mal ein bisschen übers Ziel hinaus geschossen. Außerdem hätte ich hier und da gerne ein wenig mehr Gitarrenwucht gespürt, doch dass mag daran liegen, dass ich ja vorne und relativ dicht am Trommler stand, hinter dem die gewaltige Verstärkerwand des Headliners optisch das genau gegenteilige Soundproblem suggerierte.

Das klingt jetzt allerdings schon nach viel mehr Gejammer als die Band verdient hat, denn Churchlickers fahren tatsächlich eine schön eigenständige erdige Schiene in ihrem Genre. Dass die eine oder andere Unebenheit im Gleis vielleicht noch zurechtgedengelt werden könnte, tut dem keinen Abbruch. Hat mir gut gefallen.

Nach Ernte vom Merchandise-Stand gibt's hier im Blog dann demnächst ein Wiedersehen in der Reihe cassette craze chronicles!

DIVIDE & DISSOLVE

Über das Niveau der von mit in diesem Jahr besuchten Einzelkonzerte kann ich schon generell beim schlechtesten Willen nicht meckern. Doch dann haben Clipping. die Messlatte am Wochenende im Hafenklang natürlich unglaublich hoch gelegt. Es mag hieran liegen - und daran, dass mir die erste Bekanntschaft mit Divide & Dissolve auf dem Roadburn Festival 2022 zwar durchaus gefallen hatte, jedoch noch weit von Perfektion entfernt gewesen war -, dass meine Erwartungshaltung an diesen Abend als stabil optimistisch, aber nicht hysterisch enthusiastisch bezeichnet werden konnte.

Doch was die Gitarristin und ihre - ich weiß nicht ob dauerhaft neue oder nur temporär für diese Tour anwesende - Drummerin nun vom Stapel ließen, war eine gewaltig krachende Doomwucht auf dem Dröhnmachtlevel von Gruppen wie Big|Brave oder Bell Witch, die sich vor nichts und niemandem verstecken musste. Im Vergleich zur letztjährigen Festivalperformance, bei der Musik manchmal etwas zufällig zusammengerifft wirkte, war hier ein ein gezielteres, absichtlicheres Selbstbewusstsein zu spüren. Dazu passte auch gut, dass - wie vom aktuellen Album "Systemic" versprochen - die im mit Patrick Shiroishi vergleichbaren Stil auf dem Sopransaxophon zusammengeloopten Intros deutlich anspruchsvoller und mutiger daherkamen.

Die volle DroneNoiseSludge-Gewalt ließ keinen Zweifel daran, dass die zwei Bass-Amps und zwei Gitarren-Doublestacks nicht nur als Deko aufs Boot gehievt worden waren. Außerdem nehme ich stark an, dass das in der Sommerpause aufgerüstete Soundsystem der Location sich bezahlt machte, denn an einen solch grandios präsentierten, ins Meditative transzendierenden Brachialklang konnte ich mich auf der MS Stubnitz trotz einiger bemerkenswerter Konzerterlebnisse bisher nicht erinnern. Ganz klar die richtige Investition!
 
Das Set des intrumentalen Duos bestand aus mehreren Blöcken zusammenhängender Stücke, und als Divide & Dissolve nach dem dritten dieser Blöcke die Show beendeten, war ich zunächst etwas perplex, weil es mir sehr verfrüht vorkam. Doch ein Blick auf die Uhr versicherte mir, Zeuge einer vollkommen normalen, angemessenen Spielzeit gewesen zu sein. Subjektiv allerdings ist diese Zeit irre schnell vorbeigegangen.

Was soll man machen? Auch wenn ich sicherlich noch zwanzig weitere Minuten Vibrationsmassage meiner inneren Organe vertragen hätte, bleibt da folgerichtig als Fazit nur restlose Begeisterung. Wunderbar!

DIVIDE & DISSOLVE - Systemic

It's not a stretch to say that Divide And Dissolve inhabit a very specific niche in Doom, with a sound you can only stray from so far without losing your identity. Or can you? Well, with the experience of having seen them perform at Roadburn last year and also owning their 2021 album "Gas Lit" I at least had pretty clear expectations of what I was going to hear on the duo's new work.

DIVIDE & DISSOLVE - Systemic (CD) (2023)

So lets check! Is the album rather short (a little over thirty minutes) and fully instrumental except for one track providing the backdrop for poetic narration by Minori Sanchiz-Fung? Yes, all true here too.

So what about the way they construct their tracks? Typically Divide And Dissolve start with atmospheric textures, made out of looped soprano saxophone and/or keyboards. Those then suddenly get crushed by droning Doom or dirty Noise Rocks riffs, while the loop still is around somewhere far in the background. The guitar tone is devastatingly crunchy, the interaction with the drums enormously heavy, but also quite loose in a chaotic, very primal way, which in its core is much more emotionally expressive than it even is Metal. And at some point, without a really concluding resolution... it just ends somehow. Sometimes that happens with, sometimes without the resurfacing of the initial loop. 
It's an approach which technically looks much more like putting raw pieces together in a default scheme than applying actual songwriting. Which makes it all the more admirable how good this works. Remember: I'm still talking about the expectation based on the past. And yay, all that jazz applies again on "Systemic"!

Divide & Dissolve live at Roadburn

So it's just another day at the office then? If it is than Black Native American Takiaya Reed and Maori Sylvie Nehill have surely established a productive and ambitious work atmosphere. They're doing all their weirdly specific things, but have refined them in all aspects.

The most obvious improvement to what was already great before are the loops, which seem to be more elaborated than before, especially regarding the more sophisticated saxophone arrangements. This part of the music is so strong that the whole album is confidently framed by the synthesizer introduction "Want" and the saxophone epilogue "Desire". So including the instrumental side of the sole vocal track "Kingdom Of Fear", which contains drums (yet also xylophone) and almost sounds like an Ambient score of modern day Swans, already a third of the album doesn't feature Metal guitars at all.

Following what I've already implied before I've only called the riffs Metal to negate that now and replace the term with Noise Rock - or at least add the Avant-Garde tag, because their impact is much closer to bands like Caspar Brötzmann Massaker or Insect Ark than to any pure Doom Metal doctrine.

With the juxtaposition of jazz-adjacent loops and quaking heaviness I could also imagine Divide And Dissolve's sound on this album to be a more raw and primitive version of an imaginary crossing between the solo works of Japanese American saxophone player Patrick Shiroishi and Sludge experimentalists Sumac.

So yeah, while this is neither perfect nor intented to be, it definitly is pretty great orignal stuff with an unexpectedly soulful core, which grows every time you listen to it. And given the short total playing time "Systemic" is of course an album which can easily be squeezed into most days' schedules. So I'm certainly looking forward to seeing how much I will love this several months from now. 

ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2022 • DAY THREE: Saturday, April 23rd

 - The call of a thousandfold sounds:
Once upon a time in the Church of Cartography -

Senyawa

Good morning Saturday! My body clock and the bleating sheep outside made sure that I didn't sleep until eleven, so there was some time at hand between breakfast and lunch. I wanted to do something, but not spend too much energy, so a little 4 km walk around Biezenmortel had to suffice.

Afterwards I luckily took a look at my still relatively reasonable merch haul and thus discovered that one of the two Five The Hierophant CDs I had bought yesterday wasn't sealed and had in fact not even a disc inside! Somehow I had accidentally acquired the display copy. Now that was a reason to get to Tilburg in time.

After sorting that thing out without being suspected of the most pointless fraud in criminal history, I was already in the right place, as the longest Roadburn day once again began at 1 pm in The Engine Room.

Midwife

After three days (including The Spark on Wednesday) all starting with earthshakingly brutal wake-up calls it was a welcome change of pace to float into the festival on a sweet ethereal note for once. Madeline Johnston aka Midwife welcomed the audience alone, playing guitar and singing through a vintage telephone receiver, which made her voice thin and distanced, yet evoked that melancholic quality of a silent call between lovers, where neither of them wants to hang up. It also forced the audience to stay silent and listen closely - which was the proper way of immersing oneself into the featherweight aesthetic of her songs anyway. This minimalistic dream pop with the patience and sincerity of funeral doom was just achingly beautfiful.

Divide and Dissolve

Two young women, one black, one of Maori ancestry, calling for the destruction of colonialism and white supremacy through the language of crushing instrumental drone doom. The intriguing premise of the duo from down under indeed resulted in a devouring wall of sound, yet failed to deliver its massage through the music alone. With that I'm not saying that I disliked the long and quite charming speeches addressing the world's deeply embedded racism in front of a predominantily Dutch and white audience. I'm also not saying that I disliked the music of Divide and Dissolve itself at all.

It just seemed that similar to the Vile Creature x Bismuth show two days before, the band wasn't really ready for the size of the room (this time being The Terminal), which caused the narrative intention, which is clearly audible in the studio versions of their songs, to get lost. Every piece started with a looped soprano saxophone introduction, which was at some point steamrolled by a stream of sludge, which was performed rather loose and introverted in the back half of the stage. It created a mood I could get into, but didn't tell a story beyond that. Not a bad show, but obviously a little behind its own ambitions.
 

Up to this point the planning of my running order had been easy, since only the two Koepelhal stages had opened yet. What followed now was one of the most dreaded clusterfucks of hard decisions, even though there had already been an important cancellation earlier. Still this calls for an intermission to once again celebrate...

CLASHBURN:
In the heart of the afternoon cluster had been a huge series of shows on the Next Stage, starting with ambient artist Lustmord, morphing into his collaborative work with Karin Park and afterwards culminating with the show of Årabrot. How much of that could you watch, when at the same time there were the rivalling must-see performances of Emma Ruth Rundle playing her solo album "Engine Of Hell" and Kanaan, as well as a fully electronic show of Radar Men From The Moon?

Lustmord falling away didn't make it much easier, as part of the Next Stage slot would now be filled with a Gnod surprise show. But at least I didn't have to miss all of the aforementioned artists. And I could forgo Emma relatively easy anyway, because I already had a ticket for her postponed tour date in Hamburg.

The saddest miss during the later course of the day would be Pulled By Magnets (and generally no show in the Paradox jazz club today), Ulver playing "Flowers Of Evil" and still not knowing if Duma are worth the hype. Apart from that me seeing Kaelan Mikla appearantly just isn't meant to happen.

And right now, as I finally continue with my report, there was no chance of witnessing even a glimpse of Sordide performing their great black metal piece "Les Idées Blanches", because a prolific cellist and brilliant musical mind waited on the Main Stage with one of Roadburn 2022's defining experiences...

Jo Quail

With completely new works, the repeated Redux performance of Gggolddd and several shows originally meant for 2020, this edition of Roadburn will surely go down in history as being stacked with commissioned projects, put together specifically for the festival. I'm not even mentioning every single one of them in my write-ups.

Jo Quail's "The Cartographer" was special among all of them in more than one way. Of the shows originally scheduled for 2020, it was the only one which was supposed to be moved to last year's streaming event, but then due to travelling restrictions that didn't happen either. And in hindsight this probably was for the better, since there's no doubt that the piece deserved to be played in front of a live audience.

Musically it was also far from the norm, even with that norm having become extremely blurry at Roadburn by now. However a contemporary classical work led by electric cello - including Jo's typical, amazing loop effect shenanigans - and electric violin, backed up by piano, two orchestral percussionists and not one, not two, but an ensemble of eight trombone players, is still something which stands out, not only here, but anywhere you could possibly perform it.
The composition in five movements also included bits of narration and two singers, male and female, both delivering sometimes supportive, sometimes center stage vocal performances of a versatile range between operatic, mystical and metal.

Together they all created something as unique as it was dynamic, emotional and captivating.
To find fitting comparisons for this brave piece we must look to the world of soundtrack composers. And even without too much expertise in that field, relistening to "The Cartographer" (which given the unexpected opportunity has also been recorded as studio version between lockdowns) I am confident that Jo Quail's labour of love can rival the masterworks of Bear McCreary, namely for Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. This is just fantastic stuff.

The audience in the 013 felt it. The musicians knew they nailed it. This was a well-earned triumph.
  

Kanaan

Me, leaning back, striking the coolest pose in the Hall of Fame:
You know... [dramatic pause] I... [even longer, infinitely longer pause]... yeah.

The unsuspecting victim of my weird flex: You what?

Well, back in the old days, in 2019, I saw these guys on the very first date of their very first European tour, you know.

 
Cool, good for you.

Good for them, too. Look where they are now:
They've just won the Spellemann for their recent album!

Spelle-what?

The freaking Norwegian Grammy!

Ok... So ehm... I guess you're implying that is somehow your doing?

I'm implying nothing. Just saying. *

Kanaan have in fact come quite a way since then, even though there haven't really been many chances to perform live anywhere. But the trio unmistakably sounds different now. The mixture of Danish instrumental kraut jammers Papir and the almighty Mahavishnu Orchestra I had heard in them is still there, yet they have reduced the fusion rate and really doubled and tripled and quadrupled down on the fuzz and heaviness. The musicianship is still off the charts, drummer Ingvald André Vassbø still one of the craziest madmen on any stage; and if you were beginning to think they might have gotten a little bit more controlled and less excessive with their increased focus on rocking hard, think again!
I'm just a little bummed that my schedule didn't allow me to stay for the whole finale of this great show, being a mammoth tribute to Japanese space rockers Acid Mother's Temple, because why not. That's how you celebrate an award, right?

* While I had indeed been involved a funny little exchange about the band before the show, it had a completely different subject and was nothing like that. This is just a tribute.

Årabrot

From Norwegian freak-out to "Norwegian Gothic". Lord, how I thrilled I was to finally hear some tunes from this fantastic album live! Ok, I had actually already seen Karin Park perform "Hallucinational" on the same Next Stage the day before during her solo show. And she wasn't the only familiar face of this weekend on stage, as she and her husband Kjetil Nernes were completed to a trio by none other than Yodok III (or more famously Motorpsycho) drummer Tomas Järmyr.

Mostly comprised of the recent album's carnival of dark rock hits, but also a killer rendition of "Sinnerman" from "Who Do You Love" the whole Årabrot show took absolutely no prisoners. Given the slim line-up with Kjetil on lead vocals and guitar and Karin not only singing (mostly) back-up vocals and playing regular synth parts, but also stepping in for the bass on the keys, the songs were clad in different, often more minimalistic and electronic clothes.
On the other hand though Tomas Järmyr being the absolute beast and powerhouse he is, still provided a drive that was out of this world and left no doubt that Årabrot's religion is rock'n'roll. Be it "Kinks Of The Heart", "Hailstones For Rain" or "Feel It On" - every song on its own was a force conquering and turbo-missionizing the room. Fuck yes, this was my kind of church!

Five The Hierophant

Remember the merch incident at the beginning of this report? After that thing there was of course no question that I felt obligated to stay in front of the Next Stage and watch Five The Hierophant now. And only there I realized that I had already seen some of those guys during the fantastic Atonia show.
And maybe the only little downside of this show right now was the dramaturgic mistake of having seen that even bigger and even more sprawling and eclectic performance before this one.

Nonetheless the massive, yet mystical and sometimes even fata-morganish doom metal grooves as a backdrop for darkjazzy saxophone melodies, spiced up with the occasional odd surprise like the swaying waltz of "Der Geist der stets verneint" was one of those Roadburn-in-a-nutshell shows, which wrapped you in a comfortable cozy texture woven of heaviness, dreaminess and love of musical adventure. Needless to say I loved it.

Slift x Etienne Jaumet

Immediately afterwards began the third gig of French psych firestarters Slift and I was a little surprised that I still could get my desired Main Stage front row center spot. Compared to the wild "Ummon" show which I had attended on Thursday, this final performance, which saw the trio jamming with saxophonist / modular synth player Etienne Jaumet, had a far more time-bending and spaced out vibe. Loose enough to just let you enjoy the flow of the kraut stream without thinking, but also controlled and chararacteristic enough to avoid drifting into randomness. Or in other words: peak performance psychedelic rock. Bar à merveilles!

Senyawa

Where do I even begin with Senyawa? I love this band. Their recent album "Alkisah" ("Once Upon A Time") is at least my second favorite album of 2021. So when the Indonesian duo summoned me into The Terminal I just couldn't resist following their call. The reward was one of most fascinating, storytelling, mysterious, noisy, sick, unique experiences of the whole festival. Because apart only from Zaäar, who had utilized some related vocal and percussive elements, to my knowledge nothing about Senyawa even remotely resembled any other artist. This band plays a music style made up from scratch - and they have achieved a mindblowing mastership in their blend of neubauty experimental noise, drone and tribalistic Javanese influences.

Rully Shabara's voice appearantly is a complete stranger to any kind of limitations. I'm not exaggerating, I just can imagine any kind of tone, pitch and noise coming out of this man's organ. Of course he mainly chooses to use it in ways beyond what most other vocalist would even think about. His combination of wailing, shouting, snarling, screeching, grunting, throat-singing, whistling, animal-noising and working with both physical and technical effects for such a compelling dramatic purpose is one of a kind. And in the same way the music is its incomparable own world, being performed by Wukir Suryad on self-made custom instruments which reveal an astonishing variety of sounds while being plugged, hammered, scratched and bowed. Utterly outstanding!

Kungens Män

A couple of Swedes meet for the first time at Roadburn and later decide to play some kind of Roadburn music together themselves. That's the whole origin story of Kungens Män, who now, ten years later performed one of the longest shows of the night on the Next Stage.
Their chosen style materializes in long psych rock jams, so you could also say it's the dad rock of Roadburn music. But seriously, with multiple guitars, keys and sometimes also sax and maracas, there was just a lot of music, more music and also the joy of playing music going on. For most of the time I got lost in the colourful trip and admittedly don't have a very clear recollection about the actual sound apart from enjoying it. Maybe it was the looped video of Chevy Chase in the background, getting more and more ridiculously hypnotonic, which wiped my memory clean. 
Or it was the hunger. I stayed long, but not through the whole show, because I had neglected the mundane task of eating for many hours now and seriously had to grab a bite, if I wanted to make it through the last one and a half hours of this Saturday Roadburnathon.

Full Of Hell x Nothing

Truth be told - already back when Full Of Hell were announced as Artists in Residence for the Roadburn edition not to be, I just couldn't develop a great interest for their stuff. It certainly isn't the sheer brutality of them that throws me off, but somehow this band just doesn't click for me.
Therefore I hadn't planned to watch any of their various activities and was positively surprised when I caught their Main Stage collaboration with shoegazers Nothing, which turned out to be a massive, crawling slow burn of snail post metal I could actually get into. Yet unfortunately I probably still didn't watch enough of the show to properly review it though, so let's hop back to the Next Stage once again!

Kanga

The official announcement called it dark pop with industrial elements. And while that description may technically be true, it doesn't really nail my impression of what the intention behind the performance of singer / electronic artist Kanga might have been. Well, as if I knew whether this just was what it was or had a bazillion layers of deeper meaning behind it... Was I just supposed to enjoy the sight of the aerobically presented underboob cleavage or was this some trick coercing me into being a male-gazy idiot? A little bit of both perhaps? I choose to believe just that, but mostly it was a fun, highly dancable and extremely heightened exaggerration of certain über-sexualized 80's pop stars - kinky lyrics, booty dance, stripper fish-out-of-water moves and all included.
Would I spin this endlessly at home? I doubt it. Yet it certainly was exactly the right closer to now thirteen hours of festival overload. 

It was beyond 2 am now. I fell asleep in my hotel bed between 3:30 and 4:00 in the morning.

Which means that I'm basically already deep in my Sunday report. See you later on the other side!

reviews of the other festival days:

ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2022 • THE SPARK: Wednesday, April 20th

- Burn your burdens in the Temple of Rebranded Ignition! -

ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2022 • DAY ONE: Thursday, April 21st

- Tumult of magic, turmoil of transcendence. -

ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2022 • DAY TWO: Friday, April 22nd

- One day you will find me here
Hiding behind the sun with athousand loaded guns -

ROADBURN FESTIVAL 2022 • DAY FOUR: Sunday, April 24th

- Sinner get jazzy! Jammer get heavy! -