A bit of craziness is always a good ingredient in any kind of art. In fact, finding appealing art and music might be about discovering the wackiness that agrees with you. Next Life’s new album Guru Meditation features a very nice portion of craziness, and it is exactly of the kind that I like.
Next Life are a duo from Norway and have been around for more than twenty years now. Apparently, they were one of the first bands to mix chiptunes with metal. Researching whether that claim from the press info is true or not would require too much time and it isn’t all that important anyway, because their mixture of drums, guitars and chiptunes is unquestionably a very singular one.
Allusions on gaming abound on Guru Meditation. Sonically, they are omni-present via the computer-generated sounds, familiar to anyone who owned a computer in the eighties and played the very first computer games. In addition, the track titles for the instrumental music also carry gaming references, though not exclusively. Strength I, Dexterity II and Intelligence III sound like abilities you acquire in the course of a video game, Apocalypse 19 could be the name of such a game – or more correctly, the nineteenth version of it.
However, mixed among the gaming allusions are references to Eastern philosophy and religion. Track number 8 of 13, for example, is titled Infinite Karmic Repetition which, interestingly, is not only a key concept in Buddhism and Hinduism, but also a major feature of gaming – you can always start a game anew, and go through the same gaming cycles again and again. Gaming, it appears, is similar to the way Eastern religions imagine the endless cycle of suffering that is life.
The first tracks, and especially the album’s title track Guru Meditation, are series of whacky, adrenalin-heavy repetitions of guitar, drums and computer-generated sounds, put together and trapped in an infinity loop. While pretty wild and with an air of chaotic DIY punk and hardcore, the compositions are not without a structure, there are ascending and descending bits of music, there is build-up and release.
And things don’t stay all mad throughout the album. Guru Meditation has a noticeable progression towards slower, dreamier, more cerebral parts, including more computer-generated sounds and less music produced on instruments. In the album’s beginning, speed, action, and shooting sounds dominate the music, but with Strength I ominousness enters the game, as does complexity. Dexterity II is so far developed that it features even some kind of conventional melody, Apocalypse 19 sounds much funnier than its name, and the last three tracks, titled Slow Dive, Eternal Twilight and Intelligence III, are surprisingly calm considering the album’s opening. After roughly 27 minutes everything is over, and since you’re not sure what the hell just struck you, you’ll want to hit play again.
If you are looking for comparisons, I will have to disappoint you, because there really are none. Metal’s best-known chiptune project Master Boot Record is another pair of shoes entirely, and Japan’s Vampillia might do as a reference for the first few tracks, but not for the entire album.
Guru Meditation is an album worth hearing though it might appeal only to a small portion of the potential audience out there, and even if it does appeal to you, it’s hardly a contender for your everyday listening. But it’s still a wacky little album worth owning.
(8/10 Slavica)
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