ALBUM REVIEW: Antediluvian – Bong-Ra
It’s exciting when a veteran of a scene decides to push the boundaries of what is musically typical. With two decades at the front of the breakcore scene, Jason Kohnen takes his alter ego project BONG-RA and turns his hand to the fusion of doom and free jazz with Antediluvian. With his background in electronic music, and a taste for the more expressive, extreme side, this record is bound to be interesting.
A chilling and mysterious experience, the ten or so minutes of Kheper – Pharoah’s Serpent is a journey into uncomfortable, wet, electronic crackling. The tone of the drums is exceptional; snapping and aggressive, but with sparse beats that wash over and cascade in a spray of sparking and snapping snare and cymbals. The avant-garde nature of the reed instrumentation over the thinly audible, but undeniably important melody, is like jackal laughter in the dark. It’s spine tingling, and presses a sense of danger and unease upon you. There are some compelling moments that hypnotise you into their cold and haunting sway, as the throbbing and the crunching of the strings, synth and drums all become a bubble of esoteric noise; this is obscure, and deliciously malevolent.
With no indication that things will become any less complex, Hidden Chambers growls and stomps, it’s doom to the core. Structurally, it’s more compact than its predecessor, and works more with low, choral vocals that blend in and out of the spite filled venom of the guitars. The drums, again, are acoustically on point. They feel as room filling as they might be in real life, adding a dynamic to the motions between heavier and lighter moments. The second act is unexpectedly lead by bright keys, the percussion always the constant. However, as the doom riff seeps in over there is a flow through from one texture to another that’s expertly done.
Yet more experimental ideas come with the theatrical Precession Of The Equinoxes. Its ambient beginnings of inaudible and unintelligible noises layer over more urgent rhythmic patterns. When the dirty fuzz announces itself, it’s a booming, terrifying rumble that really inspires a sense of awe and fear. It’s dense, and beyond that, it’s utterly dark and mal-intended. This feels more like traditional doom, while encompassing so many jazz stylings and ideas. What makes this feel fresher than both on their own is that the doom elements are never allowed to become too monotonous, and the jazz elements are never allowed to become too flamboyant. The restrictions one has on the other actually become a benefit. It’s certainly not going to be to everyone’s taste, but for those here for it, Antediluvian is a pretty special piece of darkness.
Set to be its own kind of unsettling, Aton – Mind Machine manages unnerving vocalisations, solid doom riffs and battering drums in a hellish and dynamically interesting way. A brutal opening couple of minutes feel more akin to the droning, monotonous oppression of traditional doom, wherein the indistinguishable sax manages to feel like screaming and unnerving unnatural sounds all at once. It’s a chaotic, beautiful, howling, droning ending chapter to this otherworldly, monstrous record.
It’s a hard thing to make doom feel completely fresh, but BONG-RA has managed to reinvigorate all prior-expectations of the genre. The blending of free jazz and doom is going to go like marmite for listeners. If you’re into it, it makes complete sense, and you’ll be craving more of this delicacy. Taking all the most impactful elements of both genres, Antediluvian is a feat of ingenuity in what it means to make thought-provoking and truly nasty soundscapes. There’s nothing like it right now, and it’s well worth the time.
Rating: 8/10
Antediluvian is out now via Tartarus Records.
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