Madares oozes into view on a bed of gritty, viscous drones and sepulchral tones as vaguely Middle Eastern scales give way to insectile wailings and muffled, throbbing drums. With his Greek heritage and a life based in Berlin, Blakk Harbor brings an Eastern insight to a very Western city and its music.
Blakk Harbor is the debut album by Angelos Liaros (aka Mobthrow), a sound designer for Native Instruments. With his Greek heritage and a life based in Berlin, he brings an Eastern insight to a very Western city and its music. Even without that pedigree Liaros’ music is deft and darkly crafted, a perfect soundtrack for dark night drives or even darker rituals—or just a good listen. Madares (derived from dune mountains of Crete, with its moonlike landscape) oozes into view on a bed of gritty, viscous drones and sepulchral tones as vaguely Middle Eastern scales give way to insectile wailings and muffled, throbbing drums on “Sunken.” “Moondrone” continues the pulsating, ritualistic drums and rhythms with additional reverb splats and sounds not unlike the atonal, aggressive workouts of Logghi Barogghi-era Scorn. “Eastern Trails” is reminiscent of the dark, ambient work of Ghislain Poirier on Mille Plateaux before he devoted himself to more celebratory tribal rhythms with murky eruptions of a muezzin’s call amidst Middle Eastern drums and deep 808 style bass thuds. “Sacred Grounds” ups the BPM’s a notch, giving the track a foreboding feel of building doom and conflagration. “Archaic” brings low droning horns into play over skin drum rhythms, adding a layer of arch mystery and bloated pomp to the affair. Madares is a must, an absolute must for fans of dark ambient music, especially artists like High Tone (a French hard-dub outfit), Scorn (do we even have to tell you about Scorn?), Ghislain Poirier, Richard Skelton and others. Listen, learn and be wary of what lies in the darkness!
Madares is available on Ant-Zen/Blakk Harbor.
