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Yurt — IV - The Obstacle Is Everything
(Bandcamp Little Plastic Tapes no#, 2018, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2019-02-16

IV - The Obstacle Is Everything Cover art

I first encountered this Irish band on their third release, and the follow-up continues in the same vein, presenting 53 minutes of creative darkness. While there are heavy riffs and dissonant, clashing, distorted guitars, there are also sweeping synthesizers and moments of stillness. Tempos range from plodding to hard-driving, so there’s no danger of boring listeners with sameness. They do tag the album with “space rock” on Bandcamp, along with “post-punk,” “experimental,” and “brainmelt,” and I would add “space doom,” which may not mean much but conveys the mood well. It’s like a collaboration between Sun O))) and Boris after overdosing on a Hawkwind marathon. But it’s really better than that might imply. Especially when they get going on a meter-changing riff like the one in “Angel Happatuth Meets Devil Dikkei,” where they come off like a crazed metal band channelling Captain Beyond after too many cups of coffee. Everything just works, from the choices of tones on the guitars to the knob-twiddling synth parts to the Mellotron-like backing chords to the contrasting sections they move through. When it comes to heavy space rock, not many bands do it better than this, and the mysterious devotees of the Yurt deserve to have attention for their dark musical ceremonies.

Filed under: New releases, 2018 releases

Related artist(s): Yurt

More info
http://yurt.bandcamp.com/album/iv-the-obstacle-is-everything

 

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