ALBUM REVIEW: Venera – Venera

To make electronica that feels alive is a difficult task. To make it into something that feels like a living thing, where whisps of melody through a mass of ambience, pulse and ticking, feels almost sentient, is rare. Herein lies the space for VENERA – a duo comprised of Atlanta-based composer/filmmaker Chris Hunt in collaboration with KORN’s James ‘Munkey’ Shaffter. Their experimental electronic soundscapes look to feel both fully cinematic and sporadically improvised.

Throughout this record, it’s clear that the themes convey a sense of brooding foreboding. Erison is highly erratic and unnerving, the drill and judder of the beat feeling like a malfunction in the machine, while the oppressive swell and dip of the overarching synths cast the idea that this is an inhospitable place to be. When it finds an equal temperament, it’s a grandiose titan of cold and uncaring sounds. The only harmony here is the music moving as one, nothing about it feels welcoming, it’s all metal and bite.

Percussion is a huge focal point throughout this record; VENERA rely upon it to not only carry the music in the most basic way, but also as a narrative tool. Its inflections and irregularities say something just as much as the smooth beats that flow through the likes of songs like Hologram (feat. VOWWS).

In the same vein, droning, corrosive soundscapes drip and alter the textures of songs like Disintegration (feat. Deantoni Parks), as the drumming comes from irregular patterns, without much care for where the beat should be to make you move. It feels like a wild animal, just there because it always has been, regardless of how we want it to be to consider it musical. Eventually, the rhythm shifts to something more pulsing and almost calming, before losing its human need for consistency and surrendering back to the abstract.

It’s an incredibly cinematic record, which for a debut is phenomenal, but considering the background of its creators, no surprise. Signifiers like the flutter within Ochre (feat. HEALTH) that make you sit up and take note that something big is on the horizon and it has your worst interests in mind. It’s eerily cool, understated electronica that sits outside the conventions of accessible, easily digestible music, but also outside the conventions of cinematic compositions.

Instead, what VENERA have achieved is a soundscape that feels as much its own horrifying language as it does a story, one that you create as you’re fed inspiration. As you wander through the desolation, there are spikes of cosmic horror that bloom throughout this record.

Swarm feels like you’ve stumbled upon something on the cusp of sentience, and while beautiful, one could be violent at any moment. Likewise, Surrender feels like the universe is staring into you, awesome and terrifying, serene and terrible. There’s little to no discernible structure to feel out, rather a wave emotional layers reaching out, hoping to make a connection.

For anyone who enjoys introspect, sonic worldbuilding and unearthly cinematics, VENERA both as a band and an album will absolutely captivate you. This record feels incredibly intimate and cosmic at the same time. Venera moves with a consciousness and lucidity that will have you hungry for more, and most likely going back to it again and again on bloomy nights in industrial places.

Rating: 8/10

Venera is set for release on October 13th via Ipecac Recordings.

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