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Ok, actually that line of dots is the complete tracklist of Aluk Todolo’s new album LUX. One could assume the French instrumental trio is trying to give you as little help as possible to grasp let alone review it. The programmatic description “Aluk Todolo plays Occult Rock exclusively” also doesn’t indicate that they approve or care about anyone’s dissenting categorization. So why am I even doing this to myself at all in the first place? Well, even though I haven’t checked out the releases after it yet, I love their monolithic 2012 album Occult Rock. Yes, that’s the name. And it has come to my ears - in increasingly high volume - that this new slab of madness here deserves just as much to be talked about.
So how occult actually are these six new planetary constellations / spots of fly shit / library code enigma tweets? Well, if the vibe of being hunted through a haunted maze by ghost in the light of the full moon counts as occult for you, then this is indeed occult to the brim. In for it? Then saddle up and get on this nocturnal ride! Just be careful that you don’t fall off, because this night-mare humps up like a flounder in the frying pan.
In its forty minutes running time LUX constantly conveys two diametrical sets of impressions at the same time. The first bundles all the dark elements: unease, dread, panic, the feeling of spiraling down towards a dark abyss, which sinisterly lingers in the black pit below the chaos and manifests as a constant layer of eery atmosphere. Let’s call this one the Occult! So consequentially the other set shall be called Rock. And that’s just the immense joy brought by the neck-breaking drive, the odd yet captivating grooves and the absolutely mad, but never pretentious musicianship all over the album, all captured in a delightfully natural dynamic production that rightfully takes great pride in exclusively utilizing analog recording and mixing technology.
Playfully but with relentless force Aluk Todolo are fearlessly showing off wild chops in a way that merges the energies of Noise Rock and Jazz without ever really committing to one of those genres. Prog Metal, Post-Metal and Psychedelic Rock might actually be better fits, but - and that’s a big BUT - only if you know for which of their characteristics to look. Otherwise you’re faster and farther mislead than you can blink an eye. No, this band just doesn’t do us the favour of fitting neatly into preconceived concepts like that.
However luckily we have several weird and niché Avantgarde Metal points of reference, from which I can at least pretty easily draw the picture of a direct hybrid of the bonkers Zeuhl-fueled brutal insanity of their fellow Frenchmen Ni or the Zorn-ish Jazzcore furor of the Italians Zu with the demonic maelstrom of recent Blut Aus Nord releases and the hypnotic circular flow of angular shapes in the Blackened Kraut Rock of Oranssi Pazuzu (as of… let’s say around seven years ago).
In conclusion this means: Squares within wheels, reflected in bewitched eyes, trapped in trance by a magnetic, complex kaleidoscopic hex. This or just call it Primus minus vocals plus Neu! on Black Metal.
Too bad Aluk Todolo aren’t known to play many live shows, because this album really makes me want to get into the first row immediately, bathe in the manic swirl of their sound and squint in the face of twenty-thousand LUX of stage light. - Oh wait, I know it now! The dots are light bulbs, right?
