You have to love Hummus records. Not content with unleashing Coilguns upon the world (well, the label is the brainchild of Coilguns guitarist Jona Nido after all), the label has recently been issuing a small, but steady stream of amazing bands, each one different in style but all united by their steadfast passion and commitment to the art of making music. Olten’s press biography is so ludicrously unhelpful to insert snatches of it here would only add an extra layer of confusion to proceedings, so here’s an excerpt:
“If Olten were to be a city, it would definitely lie at the heart of a triangle made of Lonyearbyrin, Pripiat and Balsthal – wherever the hell that means!”
Good. I’m glad the label cleared that one up for us! Olten exist in the same traumatic realm as Neurosis, Isis and old man gloom, they’re eerie, icy music caked in sludge and foul-smelling grime. Theirs is a hypnotic mix that follows the Red Sparrowes trick of taking an idea and developing it over time from its initial, mesmerising start to a cataclysmically loud finale that sees the plaster coming from the walls in puffs as the coruscating waves of noise shake the foundations of the building. At seven minutes, opening track ‘Peplum’ is a dizzying ride that neatly introduces you to the world of olten before ‘Kapoe’ comes crashing down like a sledgehammer to the cranium. Eschewing the subtle dynamics of the opening track for an all-out assault on the senses, the ferocious beginning suddenly gives way to a metronomic mid-section that is more sonic youth than sonic abuse, with guitars weaving an intricate web over drums that reek of chloroform. ‘Tallular’ is similarly lost to the realms of hypnosis, the beat heavy and yet restrained as the guitars stab and burn brightly in the dark. As with the opening track it slowly builds in power until, before you realise it, the volume levels have crept up and you’re being slowly rolled flat under the weight of riffs that roll out from the speakers like chilled molasses. Final track ‘Blom’ opens with a martial drum tattoo and tinny, echoing guitar, before blooming, like a dark flower, into a display of ferocity that sounds like the colossal thunder of a collapsing building, the band indulging in a speaker threatening display that even Ministry would baulk at. It’s an apocalyptic conclusion for an EP that is laden with threat throughout.
Hypnotic, absorbing and strangely beautiful, this debut EP from Olten promises great things to come. Operating in their own frozen sphere of bitter misanthropic despair, the EP manages to avoid being awash with negativity by offsetting such emotions with a sense of awe at the power of mother nature, the music representing the tidal waves destined to wash mankind from the shores of the earth. There is power and fury, wonder and dismay wrapped into each of these four songs and the result is an EP that veers wildly between serene landscapes and furious destructive power, guitars detonating with the power of a thousand suns and radiating white-hot intensity out over the frozen tundra. Desolate, elegant, brutal when it needs to be, Olten’s debut EP is a wonderfully powerful beast that demands attention.
Don’t take our word for it – listen for yourself:
