{"id":6664,"date":"2023-01-24T11:30:47","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T11:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/?p=6664"},"modified":"2023-11-10T11:31:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T11:31:10","slug":"scream-blast-repeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/index.php\/2023\/01\/24\/scream-blast-repeat\/","title":{"rendered":"Scream Blast Repeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"6NdsdN9RSS\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.screamblastrepeat.com\/phalangst-whiteout\/\">Phal:Angst \u2013 Whiteout<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Phal:Angst \u2013 Whiteout&#8221; &#8212; Scream Blast Repeat\" src=\"https:\/\/www.screamblastrepeat.com\/phalangst-whiteout\/embed\/#?secret=XBeJUlaKtk#?secret=6NdsdN9RSS\" data-secret=\"6NdsdN9RSS\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Austrian collective,\u00a0Phal:Angst, don\u2019t write songs. They create moods. For their fifth album, they aim to compose cinematic pieces for a film you will never see but might think you\u2019ve seen. You know you\u2019ve been here before, but was it a dream or a traumatic memory you buried long ago as a coping mechanism?\u00a0Whiteout\u00a0is an experiment in post-rock with progressive electronica foundations and maudlin reflections on the loneliness of human existence. It\u2019s also a record that pushes through the one-hour mark and demands an abundance of patience.<\/p>\n<p>You need to be in a calm and serene place to get the most out of the opening title track. The brooding piano bass notes and minimalist high-register keys offer the promise of a melody the way a cold spring morning holds out the hope of sunshine. Slow-picked guitar arpeggios and primitive tom drumbeats keep you in a state of unease. The unknown is your greatest nemesis here. Phal:Angst create the conditions for you to build up to a slow deterioration of your nervous system. It\u2019s a relief when the vocals enter at the four-minute mark with a whispered rasp that requires no special talent. Why does it feel like the end goal of this song is to take you to the pre-stage anguish of post-metal? Fuzzy guitars look for melody among the effervescent angst. Layers of instrumentation merge together like blotted rainbow colours. Eight minutes feel like six.<\/p>\n<p>The most notable feature of this album is the high quality of its first three tracks. \u2018Severance\u2019 is like a post-rock take on\u00a0Depeche Mode\u2019s\u00a0Music for the Masses\u00a0album in the key of E minor. A bubbling synth bass fills the gaps between the electronic snare and the dreamy guitars as the musicians add more layers to the mix like chefs preparing a soup. \u2018Least Said, Soonest Mended\u2019 is the one attempt to incorporate a futuristic\u00a0Kraftwerk\u00a0ideal of the symmetry between an educated society and the technology that provides its comforts. You\u2019ll detect the introspection of\u00a0Mogwai\u00a0over the top of this minimalist synth utopia. The vocals are much more poignant here as double-tracked passages that aim to resemble the robotic austerity of the vocoder. An avalanche of melody lies in wait but remains dormant on purpose.<\/p>\n<p>If this band once played a post-rock version of doom metal, they show how to move beyond it on\u00a0Whiteout. It might not be for the best. \u2018What Rests Mute in Blight Corners\u2019 is a triumph of slow piano and bouncy kick beats that prefer to avoid anything that could resemble an upbeat rhythm. \u2018Unhinged\u2019 should be the crowning piece with its distorted guitars, synth basslines, and growling vocals, yet it sounds like a synthwave band scoring the music for an art-house sci-fi movie when it settles down. The eight minutes here drag like the weight of a heavy backpack. You\u2019re unprepared for the twelve-minutes of \u2018What a Time to be Alive\u2019 because your demeanour is one of increasing agitation. Twelve minutes of\u00a0M83\u00a0and\u00a0Air\u00a0in the doldrums of a depressive episode with only an inch of hope in their bloodstream is hard to appreciate unless you have it on as background music while doing other things.<br \/>\nThough it starts like a puzzle you can conquer,\u00a0Whiteout\u00a0ends as an impenetrable enigma. Adding on two further remixes as bonus tracks at the end is self-indulgent even if one of them is from\u00a0Jarboe\u00a0(Swans). Yet despite all this, there\u2019s a musical sophistication here that\u2019s worth your perseverance. Nothing is predictable apart from the melancholy mood, which is its best feature. Give it a listen and see if you can find the rainbow in the autumn drizzle.<br \/>\nJVB<br \/>\n6\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phal:Angst \u2013 Whiteout Austrian collective,\u00a0Phal:Angst, don\u2019t write songs. They create moods. For their fifth album, they aim to compose cinematic pieces for a film you will never see but might think you\u2019ve seen. You know you\u2019ve been here before, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6666,"href":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664\/revisions\/6666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phal.angst.band\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}