ALBUM REVIEW: āl bēlūti dārû – Wyatt E.
“We write music for gods,” proclaim WYATT E.: a Belgian duo creating doom-aligned desert-ambient, whose enthusiasm for all things neo-Babylonian approaches fetish-hood. Cloaked in mystery as well as their flowing black robes, the duo (trio?) have been active since 2015 when they first emerged with the release of their Mount Sinai/Aswan EP.
Their instrumental oeuvre achieves post-rock intensity through careful layering of synthesisers, effect-laden guitars, and drums, which steadily climax over the course of their LP-length compositions. The 2017 album Exile To Beyn Neharot built on what was really just an idea, and its live performances brought the band some infamy in the European and Israeli stoner/psych/doom scenes.
The collective return with āl bēlūti dārû (‘The Eternal City’ in Akkadian, an extinct east-Semitic language) which they release on Bristol’s boutique Stolen Body Records. The desert has long been the muse of mess-heads worldwide (see KYUSS and SLEEP) and its solitary, unchanging nature takes on a spiritual significance for those seeking the divinity of nothingness. WYATT E.’s sparse, mostly instrumental arrangements are easily the musical analogue of the arid, bare landscapes which they evoke through their imagery and costume.
The band adds saxophone and saz to an otherwise conventional rock ensemble to complete their otherworldly sound, which becomes pleasingly hypnotic given half a chance. It would be easy to compare them to OM, but they’re not scratching that itch for us: WYATT E. is more ephemeral and less deliberate, lending itself to a soundtrack-like experience for long walks, meditations, or a good old fashioned solo smoking session.
You could get carried away by WYATT E.’s superficially exotic sound, but it’s all much of a muchness after ten minutes or so. Presumably there’s a potent live aspect that’s not reached the recording but even still, it has a Hollywood-like authenticity which quickly loses its charm. Worse still there’s not much here that you won’t have heard on the last record: it’s new material, but the exact same vibe. You have to do something pretty special to stand out as an instrumental act in the doom world, and we wonder if WYATT E. are ever going to be more than a novel sideshow here.
Neo-Babylonian channelers WYATT E. have their novelty, which they have recycled wholesale for āl bēlūti dārû. The appeal is still there for the uninitiated – hypnotic desert-worship awaits, but we wonder how much interest this holds for seasoned fans of the whole drone/ambient/instrumental post-rock thing. Maybe there’s a certain magic to it when the band are on stage, but we were left wanting with the record.
Rating: 4/10
āl bēlūti dārû is out now via Stolen Body Records.
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