Review: Narcosatanicos - Body Cults

Narcosatanicos are a 6 piece from Aarhus, Denmark and they play some gnarly noise rock that takes in proto punk, krautrock and all kinds of noisy aggro. Their self-titled first album was a revelation..a bad acid trip to end all bad trips...this was followed up with a live EP; 'Gutter Island Live', that added even more visceral rawness. These guys ain't no walk in the park....more the running of the gauntlet through badly lit alleys haunted by knife wielding mutant punks. Let's be bull's pizzle honest about this - if you like your music aggressive, loud and completely unfettered by the mores of the majority of 'music lovers' you are going to fuckin' love this.....I did. 'Body Cults' is soon to be released on Bad Afro, a central player in the resurgence of Scandinavian psych etc in recent years.

The album is opened by the delightfully named 'Vulvic Church' and a blast of skronky brass before some doom laden guitars build up a huge wall of noise...dense to the point of almost impenetrable....under which some vocals can be vaguely discerned. The track fluctuates between this monolithic noise and more sedate passages of the jazzy brass. It's this chiaroscuro that disarms the listener. By the end any light, however, has been replaced by the dark, chaotic noisefest. 'Vile' is a huge track...taking the same recipe as the opener...the same jazzy brass and monumental noise...and expands upon it. This track has more structure and even more power though. It is like a boot in the face....no ambiguity, no mixed messages - it comes streaming out of the blocks and hits hard...the visceral power is exhilarating. 'Mania' sounds like what I would imagine mania sounds like...a glorious cacophony of brass, guitar and crashing drums that would tip any bi-polar sufferers right over the edge...this is mental illness set to music...and I fuckin' love it (I s'pose being an ex-mental health nurse may help?). 'Television Dreams' is probably my fave on the album...the way it moves from an all-out barrage of noise to gentler passages of brass and noirish vocals and then builds again offers some variety in the incessant, but glorious, noise. It's the manner of that building that is the highlight...it's almost imperceptible but, like a locomotive gathering pace, the track becomes dense and claustrophobic with the melange of instruments...it's the soundtrack to Armageddon. 'Matamoros' initially sees things calm and almost tranquil...some fluid jazz from brass and drums over some drones and sound effects which all come together to form something verging on hypnotic....however, this is Narcosatanicos we are talking about and at about the halfway mark the guitars enter the fray and things become just that little bit more chaotic and noisy. 'Void Kink' sees the now tried and tested formula added to by some menacing vocals, adding a human touch to the devilish mix of instruments. The album is brought to a close by the ironically (?) titled 'Bliss'....it's not blissful in the traditional sense, however, the motorik kosmische patterns that the band produce is bliss in itself....it adds a different, more regimented, dimension to the band. Needless to say things get gloriously messy along the way and the track ends in a discordant mix of sounds. I can think of no better way to bring the album to a triumphant climax.

'Body Cults' is a huge album...full of aggression and attitude....an aural 'fuck you' to the world...something I think we can all empathise with in these uncertain days. There is no denying that the dissonance and raw violence of the tracks are intoxicating and thrilling....it's an album that I'm sure many will not like...their loss! But, there will be many who revel in this level of chaos and sheer bravado...I've listened to the album many times in the writing of this review, and on every listen I get something new...whether it's a new sound or a different emotion..exhilarating stuff! My only gripe, and please believe me when I say it is only a little gripe, is that there is not a great of variety between the tracks....but when you have something this good, I suppose you can't grumble. Brilliant stuff never the less. 'Body Cults' is released on the 4th November on Bad Afro, the first print of the LP is limited to 500 copies on black vinyl and includes a CD with the entire album.