I have been lucky enough to review the last two Pando releases so it was with great pleasure that I opened the quite frankly beautifully packaged gatefold CD of Rites. Pando are artists in both the musical and physical sense.  Rites – like past releases, needs to be immersed into (as I type I can see myself sounding like some pretentious hipster – but in reality I am sat in skull and crossbones pyjamas in the East of England). The photographs, collages and sculptures depicted in the artwork are as important as the big riffs and subtle melodies, the found sounds and newsreel clips that make up some of the audio parts of this piece. The latter prompted a trigger warning of sorts “we do NOT endorse or support any of the ideas mentioned within this album.”  What Pando are doing is making a statement using the words of others – the NRA, Donald Trump, news sources etc to make a cultural comment on both history and the way that Western society has evolved. The artist Adam R Bryant and Matthew Gagne state that their work is intended to provoke debate and further conversation. Which it does.

As I have said in previous reviews of their work Pando are not easy artists to assess in the usual way. There are tracks on Rites that could be seen as “standalone” pieces – the mix of bleak black metal and sound collage on opener Agape is quite spine tingling as a singular entity. The use of big doomy chords, choral voices and scratchy reverb and back masked recordings is wonderfully batshit.  Dadaism that follows is a blast of Post Black metal with razor sharp guitar lines and full on rasped vocals over a hypnotic rhythm guitar track and Electronic humming.

“Total Station Theodolite” which follows a sound collage instrumental “In God We Trust With Our Cold Dead Hands” is where Sludge meets Black Metal. This is one for Iron Monkey fans – so, so very dark and bombastic – like an oil slick in a paddling pool. No one can escape the filth. Which is just as well- as there is no time to scrape it off before “Molds of Men” hits with an infectious riff and utterly filthy blackened sludge groove.  “I want to Believe” is a mix of not too harsh noise and the voice of Vito Acconci – an American performance and video artist discussing art and the reverence it is held in above the people observing it. Interesting.

With that question in mind the twelve and half minute instrumental “Excarnation” that is up next provokes further thought.  It mixes bleak industrial, classical, distorted psychedelic guitar parts and massive splashy stoner drums over a constant sci fi throb. As a whole it can appear overwhelming but I found myself latching onto particular parts and found myself drifting into an almost zen like state.  This surely, is the “touching” of art that Acconci mentions in the previous piece.

“The Octagon” room is a harsh whispered essay, the lyrics of which I am still trying to unpick and decipher and cannot do justice.  A mix of the heaviest doom death hand bastardised surf guitar meet with noise to create a wonderful aural delirium.

As the trumpet and acoustic guitar layered over a final skip of a record on a deck we leave that room and are transported to “On the Shores of Hell”. A gentle lilting Spanish guitar rhythm , another vinyl glitch and a gentle melody massages us whilst news clips regarding sexual abuse of children by men in the Catholic Church and other abhorrence’s are entwined within it. It makes for really uncomfortable listening. The beauty of the music lifts the spirit whilst the news caster speaks matter of factly about the rape of an 18-month-old girl. Seagulls squark in the background of this hellish shore and I am struck by the evil that some people have to endure. Ugh – – stop making me think! Luckily that is something that Pando will never do – Rites is different to previous releases – there is no trip hop traces in here but the fact that the audience is forced to engage like Anthony Burgess’s Alex means that the effects of Pando will last far longer than the 50 minutes of Rites duration.

Essential listening.

(9/10 Matt Mason)  

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