A gripping take on an inevitability, executed with great inner consistency and coherency.
[Release page] ”Exploring a moment between living and not,” Deane Hughes of Toronto opens Between Worldswith a fittingly disorienting ringing in the ears. I would imagine that that moment in time is one of feverish brain activity, firing on all synapses as the neurotransmitters send signals, fairly crackling in an attempt to make sense of what the body is going through. Akumu imagines it as a kind of attuned noise or cross-circuited techno with dub touches.
Between Worlds means not to play on the emotions, nor to be overbearing or macabre, but rather lull, disconnect, “gently ebb away.” Guitars, “broken” radio transmissions and contact microphones—an unfancy array of instruments that Hughes handles deftly, producing a rich, sincere undertone, across which electrochemical thoroughfares course. “Not of the Body” in particular hits the right balance between spirit and biology, resulting in high drama. “Devastatement” pulses with the last few spasms of corporeality being transferred into electrical impulses as a long, echoing chord expresses dissipating tensile strength, the insubstantial quintessence that is all that’s left when the body has served its purpose.
A gripping take on an inevitability, executed with great inner consistency and coherency. While the religious see it as the time when the body becomes pure soul, Akumu portrays it as pure energy, indestructible, heading for its new potential.
Between Worlds is available on Spider. [Release page]
