Review: Heroin In Tahiti - Sun And Violence

Every now and then an LP will come along that will completely revitalise my love of music; an LP whose innovation, imagination and complete lack of respect for genres or pigeonholing comes as a metaphorical slap in the face of pre-existing ideals and expectations. Heroin In Tahiti's 'Sun And Violence' is one such LP.

I first became aware of the band via the wonderful ' Nostra Signora delle Tenebre' album - Backwards Records homage to the giallo soundtracks of the seventies. Heroin In Tahiti's take on 'Nuda per Satana' was a standout track for me, and so when I saw that they were releasing a new album I took a plunge into the unknown and purchased it via the Italian Boring Machines label. It was probably one of the best music based decisions I will make this year. It is so densely packed with ideas and styles that to give you a 'sounds like' / 'influenced by' list would take more space than this review.....but if you insist on a snappy soundbite description think spaghetti western soundtracked by Delia Derbyshire, produced by Stephen Stapleton, performed by members of The Myrrors, Muslimgauze and Belbury Poly. Even that only tells a small part of the tale.

The LP is a double and comes with cover art depicting an arid scene of sun-baked mountains...and this aridity is reflected in the album's opener 'Salting Carthago' , starting as a desolate sounding Morricone soundtrack with twangy guitar and some native American chanting, it could have been slotted nicely into The Myrrors 'Arena Negra' LP. The track builds in tempo with its primal percussion, chanting and some wonderful psychedelic guitar. '500 Cells' has the same arid atmosphere but this time a lone, simple guitar is plucked with some thudding industrial beats underneath until it evolves into an almost jaunty folky guitar refrain, but with some great drones added for good measure. 'Absit Omen' clocks in at under a minute and is a short, sharp exercise in dense drone and oscillating electronica . 'Black Market' starts with some marimba before more spaghetti western guitar is added, the drones adding some real menace to the track and some hauntological electronica to give it an eerie, nostalgic feel. 'Wireless Telegraphy Mirage' is a much more 'experimental' track with its spooky electronica and what sounds like distorted voices over white noise. It put me in mind of some of Nurse With Wound's material or Cabaret Voltaire circa 'Red Mecca'. 'Zatlath Aithas' sees normal service resumed.. tribal drumming, voices and sitar sounding guitars give it an eastern vibe ala Bryn Jone's Muslimgauze (sadly some are taken too early from this world). 'Spinalonga' starts with a simple music box melody, soon joined by some ethnic strings with some dark echo laden bursts of drone and some more hauntological keyboards.

The second disc kicks off with 'Arena' with its trainlike intro taking us into an exciting cacophony of ethnic drums and glossolalia and some more psychedelic guitar before it drifts into birdsong which neatly segues into 'Continuous Monument'. At just over twelve minutes it is the album's longest track. The birdsong continues with occasional chimes before a motorik drumbeat kicks in with some chattering alien noises and drones. It continues to build until the drums quieten revealing the ever- present birdsong, this time accompanied by more drones and eccentric electronic clicks and squeals, it has the more experimental Tangerine Dream feel to it; washes of sound and long drones. 'Elba' begins with an Hawaiin guitar over a simple drum beat, gradually the guitars become drenched in reverb and eastern female voice female intones. 'Superdavoli' brings some 'horror' to proceedings with a squeaking door and a single female scream before a long drone and some retro electronica worthy of Belbury Poly. It builds into a more complex affair with some more primal drums, kosmische keyboards and twang guitars all interspersed with occasional screams before it breaks down into a flurry of drums. Final track, 'Costa Concordia', as befits the tragedy of its namesake, is an elegiac tune - an electronic heartbeat throbs beneath some 'Twin Peaks' style music. There is a clanging of ships bells and distant foghorns as it mutates into electronic folk - dense and dirgy with the now familiar Heroin in Tahiti twang - until it eventually breaks down to a bass drum like a heartbeat and single cymbal over shimmering electronica joined by some oscillating drone .

All that being said, I urge you to ignore all of the above...only because words cannot truly 'describe' this album. There are flashes of psyche, bits of hauntology, lots of ethnic flourishes, plenty of drones, smatterings of folk, dashes of kosmische and lots of experimentation....but this is classic case of the sum being greater than its part. A wonderful, wonderful album that will continue to give and give on each listening. So hang your expectations by the door, pull up a comfy chair and enjoy....you know you deserve it.

'Sun And Violence' is available the Boring Machines site. I'm also rather pleased to say it is also now available from this blog's shop Dayz of Purple.