Artist: Niku Senpuki
title: Küken 1: 命
keywords: experimental, ambient, drone, film music, noise, Augsburg
Do you remember this Bruce Springsteen tune ‘Born in the USA’? Imagine just the ‘Born in the USA’ part played on a guitar and think of it doing its ultimate best to wiggle its way through a dense cloud of distortion. Add some clucking baby chickens to the situation and you might get an idea how the beginning of the first track on this Küken 1: 命 release sounds like.
^ Oh No! It’s.. no.. It can’t be…
Of course it will move away from this, soon delivering a different kind of direction without the crap band with head bandanas decorated with Stars and Stripes, eagles and shit print.. It’s now chicken babies only! And you know what? Baby chickens love some good noise, they might be not a big fan of the ‘Born in the USA’ theme, but who knows; it might be a secret delight that the baby chickens like to hear when nobody is around. That’s why this intro was so perfect; you can hear it, but yet it is camouflaged..
^ oh thank goth for that! It’s camouflaged!
The decor of a busy sounding sound cloud moves out by finding pleasure in mutating (and perhaps even ‘mating’) with a rhythmic rumbling guitar. It is hearable, but is also very one within this noise that strangely sounds so active as if there is lots of energy running around, but also can thoroughly enjoyed while observing it in a laid-back mode as if it’s alternative ambient.
The music can go either way, but even though sitting in a comfortable position while hearing this, will not stop the excitement and movement that blast through this cloud of noises. There is lots of internal things going on in this seemingly wild exposure, and it feels like a breaking point when at around 13 minutes, the ‘Born In The USA’ hint reappears gracefully.
^ hello!
This just happens temporary, and is just a moment in which it feels as if we have arrived at a savings point.. You know the place that we go when we die before the track ends, to simply hear it not from the start but from halfway through. After this the noise seems to make way for more clearer guitar rumbling, together with tones that seems to be there to create some kind of psychedelic depth in this wall of sound. It seems to find certain calmness, even though the music stays as wild as possible. See it as if you’re sitting on the back of a wild tiger who can eat you any time, but for the time being serves as your personal way to move through traffic. It can cut your eyeballs out, but for now serves you as an empowering friend.
Somehow the noise seems to have slipped itself in, or perhaps it had never left. (Anything is possible as the music might just be some kind of audio drug tranquilizing the mind in a way that you feel ‘alert’ and ‘awake’ but might as well be dead. The nearer the track moves to the exit, the more evil it sounds. Evil in a way that the art of leaving things out that were previously there, is slightly disturbing and yet as well feeling as a safe landing. A very odd piece in my opinion, having the perfect psychedelic flavor towards the end, but in honesty didn’t get my wallpaper moving and the floor melting. It’s like those new kind of drugs that trigger you into a euphoric feeling of awareness, while in reality your just a buzzing zombie with no clue about what’s going on..
Track 2 (Küken 命B Kammer) starts entirely different, very easy built up, creating a dark atmosphere with minimal sound that than simply evolves itself in a theatrical production that sounds fierce and to be honest; quite evil. A gnarly guitar jams in and starts to be all cinematic; you can easily envision a young Alfred Hitchcock plunging some inspiration from this… A castle, a thunder cloud, a murder weapon, a shower scene..
The guitar starts to be really a leader and more and more I feel like it is jumping on the hypnotic side of music. It starts to hang and my listening head gets wildly carried away when this all happens. It’s the moment that my illegal substance missing head feels tremendously energized by the energy of music. This is an up! A thumb up!
From here the music takes a more shimmering approach, a feeling of a soundtrack for a stern dark night with full attention for internal eternal thoughts. It sounds as if it is music that would be suitable material to howl to the moon with. Dark, yet of a positive kind; unlocking the wild animal inside with ease. When a keyboard joins in to give it a improvisational straight to video home movie feel, it loses this animalistic side a bit. Pulling the ears perhaps back to the reality of actually listening to ‘Born in the USA’ all along.. Disturbing mindf#ck? -might be!
^ Oh F*ck Noooo!!!
The last track (Küken 命C Mahlwerk) starts with a blurry attack of twirling guitar strings circulating like a hypnotic circle ready for brainwashing brains. I feel like listening to a mysterious recording of a drone-ish sound that is disturbing some local people that record it and load it up on YouTube with the tag ‘mysterious calling from heaven’.. In the comment section you can read the usual comments about HAAARP, weather manipulation, secret military experiments and the occasional bible quote. Luckily it isn’t a grainy homemade YouTube video and is it just a fantastic track on this album. Might it serve you well!
Download or stream this album available at the following link:
http://nikusenpuki.bandcamp.com/album/k-ken-1
<KN>
Yeah I Know It Sucks 