Listening to Bong-Ra can basically result in one of few results: Disdain because of what you hear, Discomfort because of what you think you might hear soon, Disconnect from the world outside from what you hear. For me, it is usually the later, because listening to Bong-Ra is my mediation in b-b-minor. And the b-b stands for breathtaking Breakcore.
First of all, Bong-Ra is one of the few Electronic-based artists that really still get me going, because there once was a time when I got too much of Electronica. But this project always kept me interested because there was more to it than just the harsh Jungle stuff, the dark pumping stuff somewhat closer to Thunderdome than a label sampler by some Hardcore Punk label. And this new record showcases several reasons why.
A few days ago, Jason Köhnen explained his approach to the new record, how, of course, most of it is initially based on a beat, that is then chopped up and re-arranged. And yet, it doesn’t necessarily feel like that, this record still has a very organic feel to it, and, to me, it is hard to know where the real drums end and the programmed beats begin. Köhnen is a master at using the beats to set the mood, just think of his myriad of projects which all feature a strong drum department even though their musical directions are pretty diverse: The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (and its live counterpart, the Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation), the almighty Doom-institution Celestial Season, the somewhat more folksy The Answer Lies in the Black Void, the highly elegant Mansur, the wonderful Lovecraft Sextet or Bong-Ra. We also spoke about the fact, that Bong-Ra has been there the longest now, and has also changed in importance for Jason. (You might find out a lot more in a couple of days!).
Black Noise is a record full of interesting soundscapes and – maybe even more important – songs. The latter surely needs to be mentioned, because there were Bong-Ra records where the sounds were more important than the songs. When listening to a track like ”Nothing Virus” then that surely features a lot of sounds that shoot from left to right, top to bottom and vice versa but the foundations is a songs with a powerful, somewhat industrial loop like riff in the background (think of a subdued version of Godflesh) on which there are many different noise elements and on top of it all, a beat that will make your head nod subconsciously. When the next track ”Useless Eaters” starts with a vocal sample it hits us like a reset button, and when the track takes a lot of twists and turns one can notice that here there are several drum beats – one of them being a somewhat vague one that lives more in the moments in between than in or of itself. Here the beats are more present than the mood, and that is also key to understanding Bong-Ra and Black Noise: Balance. A balance in life and in sound. That can also be seen in the record title – think about the duality of the term “black”. How can it exist without its counterpart “white”? Hardly conceivable, huh? When the vocal sample comes back with the words ”I did not break the law […] you don’t understand me, that’s your trouble / it’s not my fault because you don’t understand me / I don’t understand you either” - that is pure magic for it gives the song a good framework.
To be clear, Jason is not following in the footsteps of DJ Shadow even though he uses samples frequently on Black Noise but there are also many parts that are not sampled but recorded organically on real instruments; that might make live performances highly interesting! Also because, over the course of the record, the tracks diversify even more. There are slower tracks that put more emphasis on atmosphere and then there are the ones like the opener ”Dystopic” which rely much more on beats and sounds and the Breakcore passages. Remember the key – balance? The record is full of it and even in the context of Jason’s whole oeuvre it creates balance.
Bong-Ra was never really away, but we should thank Debemur Morti Productions and the guys behind Hungarian festival Fekete Zaj for inciting the internal, infernal urge in Jason to give us another Bong-Ra record which is unique and independent, connected and singular – and which makes me want to listen to it over and over again with headphones one and drop out from the world around me!
