Subklinik - Musik for Dekompositon

Chad Davis is the name behind the project Subklinik, and he is the guy to dry me out with his 'Musik for Dekompositon'. After being active for around twenty years in different formations of various genres, like industrial, noise and even black metal (few releases through the well-known Slaughter Productions), he presents this creation during 2010 packed into cassette format, the fact that is unusual by itself in the world of digital media. Fortunately, I am an old fuck as well and still have a tape player somewhere inside my attic.

Hailing from North Carolina, this album blasts with the apocalyptic charge from the very beginning. The sound is pretty dirty and totally minimalistic, based on analogue processors to create a unique atmosphere of technological warfare, nuclear destruction and dawn of humanity. Stuffy air of underground bombshelters, darkness without any glance of hope for the future of the human race, this is the reality around. First three tracks have splashes of a chanting voice, adding a ritualistic touch to the whole structure, giving a sense of some kind of weird post-apocalyptic ritual. Second track "Flesh Dekomposition" has a rhythmic drumming over the floating sharp melody, but all the rest are slow and medium tempo compositions.

"Dekomposition III" and "Extraktion Procedure" are two monotonous tracks with a wavy analogue pulsations constantly flowing out of speakers, putting a lot of pressure on the thin membrane of my sanity, ripping it up with a scalpel of tone modulations and cautious noisy low-fi disturbances.

Claustrophobia and death are the colors which are used to paint "Final Dekomposition" where the same line of dirty wavy passages covers the world with a shroud of radioactive ash, falling from plumber skies.

A strong taste of devastation and catastrophe that is left by this album penetrates deeply and generates without a doubt very gloomy atmosphere. I must be honest; I didn't like this record from the first run. It took me at least three or four times in order to understand the message and feel its spirit. The confusing point is that few tracks end so rapidly, it seems like the tape is suddenly cut with scissors. I couldn't find any attraction in this kind of a tactical move, it ruined for me the emotional balance gained during the track run, but still the overall impression from this album is positive enough to push the play button once again. Recommended to all those who are into minimalistic analogue manipulations. Sep 24 2012