Humanfobia has brought a path of death and destruction across the planet. This latest offering is a master work of horror and anguish that surely few can survive. The sound is not complicated, bass and keys with strange tones, groaning guttural unearthly sounds and sexy whispers from a ghost who follows me into my dreams.
Strange bells and dark clouds of hideous doom
Humanfobia has brought a path of death and destruction across the planet. This latest offering is a master work of horror and anguish that surely few can survive. The sound is not complicated, bass and keys with strange tones, groaning guttural unearthly sounds and sexy whispers from a ghost who follows me into my dreams. I hear screams and chaos, I hear sparse suspense and wet pregnant horror. Struggling, I keep listening as she tells me how I will die. I won’t move any more. There are strange bells and dark clouds of hideous doom. I am the one that puffs horror into the dead girl’s leg. Get me out of here FAST!
The horror, the mystery… whoever listens to this recording dies, seven days after doing so. It has only been six days for me. I still have some calls to make. There is a Japanese mystery horror novel by Koji Suzuki that was first published in 1991, and set in modern-day Japan. The novel was the first in the Ring novel series, and the first of a trilogy, along with two sequels. The original story won’t die, it just gets more intense, including a 1995 television film (Ring: Kanzenban), a 1998 theatrical film of the same name (Ring), a television series (Ring: The Final Chapter), and two international film remakes of the 1998 film: a South Korean version (The Ring Virus) and an English-language version (The Ring). It just won’t die.
According to local experts, after finding out three teenagers died at the same time and in the same bizarre manner as his niece, reporter Kazuyuki Asakawa of Daily News starts a personal investigation. His search leads him to Hakone Pacific Land lodge, a resort where the youths were together one week before their deaths. There, he finds a mysterious unmarked videotape which shows a 20-minute sequence of abstract and real scenes and ends with a text warning that the viewer has one week to live. The next part, which supposedly explains the “charm”—a means of avoiding death—is overwritten by an advertisement. After that things get tense. People die. Popcorn is sold. It has been six days, I have nothing to live for.
The never ending cyclical nature of the ring curse/virus ::
The title, Ring, can be interpreted in several ways, perhaps alluding to the never ending cyclical nature of the ring curse/virus. Or perhaps the “ring” relates to the sound of the old telephones, ringing with a call which warns those that view the video tape that they will die in seven days. Or ring could mean the view of the circle of light seen from the bottom of the well where Sadako’s body was left to decompose.
What we have here is a collection of tracks in erotic Japanese, from Chile. Humanfobia is a force to be reckoned with, it looks like two people but I could be wrong. Their catalog is filled with death and horror. This is my doom. It is happening again. The music (can we call it that?) starts with “Humanfobia x Sonic Kitchen – Sadako Yamamura 山村 貞子” (2:51) I do not know Sonic Kitchen and the clues are making me feel so helpless. There is crying and fear. During a sleepover, high schoolers Tomoko and Masami discuss an urban legend about a videotape that curses its viewers to die in seven days after a foreboding phone call. Tomoko witnesses the TV turn on by itself and is killed by an unseen presence. “貞子 Never Dies” (4:50) you might ask, “What about the sound?” What is the sound of the ghost of Sadako Yamamura who climbs out of the television? You must not ask. “RINGU リング” (2:47) kills me again. I shiver.
“Δ Ultratumba VHS 📼 Δ Death from the TV” (3:55) Wait – who is this DJ Iterate? I fear it is none other than Igloo contributor Thomas Park also known as Thomas Jackson Park of St. Louis in Missouri. He has many names and creates new art using new technologies faster than anyone I have ever witnessed. How can he do it? Six days are already gone and I have no answers. My time is almost forever.
Reiko visits the resort cabin where the four dead children stayed and soon finds an unmarked video tape. It contains brief, seemingly unrelated scenes accompanied by screeching sounds, and ends with a shot of a well. “The secret of the Ōshima’s Well” (3:41) After watching, Reiko sees an apparition and receives a phone call emitting the screeching sounds from the tape. Convinced she has been cursed, Reiko takes the tape and leaves the cabin.
“Reiko & Ryuji watch the cursed tape” (3:17) starts the next day, Ryūji’s TV turns on by itself, showing the well at the end of the tape. Sadako’s vengeful spirit staggers from the well and out of the TV, advancing toward Ryūji and killing him. Reiko, who had been trying to call Ryūji on the telephone at the time, hears his last moments over the phone. Guided by an apparition, Reiko drives to her father’s home to show me the tape.
“The Horror Call 7 days for Die” (4:52) takes us back to the cabin, where Reiko and Ryūji find a sealed well hidden deep within the crawlspace. Through another vision, they learn that Dr. Ikuma trapped Sadako inside that very deep and cold well. They conclude that Sadako remained alive and that the curse was born when a video tape “recorded” the rage she had projected. When draining the water, they find Sadako’s remains. Reiko’s seven-day deadline passes and she remains alive, leading them to believe the curse is broken. Until the final track, “Humanfobia x Axis Project – Psychics powers of Shizuko manipulated by Dr. Ikuma” (1:46) which is my favorite track because of the messy sloppy beat, and that cold silky dead voice that keeps me awake as I try to make it all fade, but who is Axis Project? I must find this out before tomorrow. My time is running out. I hear the beating and the groans. It never stops.
RINGU リング (2024) is available on Let’s Talk Figures. [Bandcamp]
