Aluk Todolo - Untitled (C)

Aluk Todolo are one of my favorite discoveries of late. Hailing from the happening French BM scene, Aluk Todolo bring black metal sensibilities and dark ambient seasonings to the world of Psychedelia. Sure, they have a full length, but truth be told all you really need to hear to fall in love is their debut 7", which is nameless and just referred to as "the 7 EP." The 7 EP starts out with a quiet, pulsing rhythm, then a thick and sloppily precise bass line kicks in, building up a sort of circular tension. The first few bits are only the "You must be this tall…" sign for the upcoming rollercoaster of absolutely freak out zap your mind. The repetitive Jaws-half-step bass line is topped by some building sparse guitar. The track swings into its funk before you even know what's hit you, eventually coming to a sort of figure-eight-ish transition into complete free-form delay jams, but still maintaining the haunting feeling of circularity. The track eventually digresses into a genuine chanting temple-like ambience, topped by the oh-so-soothing voice of Aleister Crowley. Then the fun begins. Side A ends on a quiet note, only to be overtaken by the pulsing Sunburned Hand of the Man-esque Side B psychedelic rock. Side B retains the pulsing of Side A, but what was once a circular wandering turns into a foreword-driven march. The track subsides briefly in the middle, but jumps back into its demoniac acid-possession with an even increased fervor. The rhythm section builds the perfect atmosphere for the out-of-this-world sounds of the guitar as its solo burns up like a forest fire glutted on fuel. Side B is a track you almost want to dance to, were it not so bizarre that you need to stop and listen to every new instant of sound. The energy of this album is the kind that has you tense and on the edge of your seat every second, and exhausted the second its over. And the energy just keeps coming, until the track ends with a dead-stop, leaving you like a heroin addict without a fix. All in all, The 7 EP earns a 100/10 for me. 18 minutes of ecstatic auditory, emotional, and physical sensationalism.