Excellent modular synth work (via units built by fellow Italians Retina.it) successfully invoke ancient thoughts through sounds redolent of both past and future.
It’s rare to come across the pairing of ancient Greek myth and cutting edge electronic music so it’s with much enthusiasm that I welcome Dadub’s musical take on The Eleusinian Mysteries and the myth of Demeter and Persephone. Quite the task to take on such deep matter and turn it into sound but who better than this Berlin based Italian duo to take on the task…
The myth itself essentially attempts to explain away the Mediterranean seasons and harvest cycles in typical extravagant ancient Greek style. Stay with me for the background—it’s worth it: Persephone (daughter of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility) is abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld. Wracked with distress Demeter searches endlessly for her daughter. The opening track “Mistress March” soundtracks this journey and to be fair it’s a very accurate portrayal of deluded anguish in the depths of the underworld. Hammering kick drums thump at relentless terrifying pace whilst doom laden hums and drones hang heavy with threatening darkness. Demeter’s tortured wails feel buried deep within the spiraling twisted sound design that bubbles around the track’s 11 minutes with a poisonous venom. There’s an overwhelming sense of darkness, confusion and strife.
Being god of agriculture and fertility makes you a big deal in ancient myth so Demeter deliberately winds mega god Zeus into action by creating a drought and starving her people—the cries of whom eventually prompt Zeus to allow Persephone to return to her mother and therefore earth—a point heralded as spring. But, cunning old devil Hades had tricked Persephone into eating whilst in the underworld—using a pomegranate as bait. (To be fair, I would have munched that pomegranate too given the circumstances.) Of course, once you’ve eaten in the underworld the Fates say you are committed for life and can never leave. A deal is therefore struck that Persephone must spend a number of months in Hades and the rest on earth each year and thus the seasons are explained with new birth and spring each time she returns.
So the myth turned to cult and was celebrated each year for 2000 years by our ancient relatives. They celebrated with initiation ceremonies into the mysteries of the cult that involved all manner of odd things: one of those being the imbibing of Kykeon, a hallucinogenic drink from which either the ergot fungus or DMT provides the LSD like effects. In short—it appears our ancient forefathers were tripping and mass hallucinating weird excuses for the seasons across two millennia. No wonder these myths are off the imaginative scale.
Now, I hope you are keeping up at the back there. What has all this got to do with stupendously produced techno I hear you ask? Well, I encourage you to ponder the insane imagination behind this ancient Greek myth—let your own mind run free whilst you commit your ears to this highly modernistic music. It’s challenging at times but makes for an engaging listen in context—at least if just to marvel at the highly impressive production and deep sound design that’s so obviously gone into this. For example, “Ergot Kernal” (dealing with the psychedelic mayhem behind the aforementioned fungus) utilizes generative sound techniques to create a maelstrom of tinnitus inducing screeching terror intertwined with shining beauty. It’s a sound both punishing and strangely inviting.
“Kykeon” closes things as EP highlight and is the most immediately accessible of the tracks. A driving bass propels skipping off beat kicks as intensely polished sound design illuminates the darkest recesses of the Kykeon trip. Excellent modular synth work (via units built by fellow Italians Retina.it) successfully invoke ancient thoughts through sounds redolent of both past and future. Surprising cerebral work from a duo clearly dedicated to the cause—I look forward to hearing more.
Untitled is available on Stroboscopic Artefact.
