Black Bone Chapel/Ring
Split 10"
Krank Records/Panikk Fabrikk

Filip Ring Andersen's Krank Records still keeps on with the high activity of releases, building a back catalog that's rather remarkable around Norway. This time his own Ring is splitting a 10" with the much darker Black Bone Chapel. Everything recorded onto 4- or 8-track recorders, and; to quote the insert sheet: "mixed 2-3-4 minutes later".

Black Bone Chapel plays raw and slow psychobilly with a graveyard voice. BBC is Jarle Labdon, and the attitude is tough and frightening - but with some sense of humor, though? Personally I'm not in the mood for this music, though I'll admit that Seven Ways of Going has some charming madness/wildness in it. Like Tom Waits ca. Swordfishtrombones. Expect wildness, but I find too little melodic quality in the songs. Beast, but no beauty.

The Ring side is quite different, with its chilly electronica, and it's obvious that Ring's expanded his number of instruments to play with. A Tribute to A. Casio RZ-1, MC-D Trash and Zirkus Chat (with samples from another Krank band, Cirkus Gilmour, taken from an interview from the Norwegian Broadcasting Co.) are all quite experimental stuff: exploration of rhythms, sounds, and samples, sounding like it could have been taken from the soundtrack of a minimalist, spacy road movie. Cry in the Sky is a more conventional song, and a great one too, creeping towards you with its friendly intensity. Middle O-T-Day Br-Fast is yet another experiment, and sounds somehow like an updated version of Pink Floyd's Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast. Quite cool. Ring keeps on expanding his universe, and it'll be interesting to see where he goes next.

Copyright © 2000 Håvard Oppøyen