This wee split sounds exactly like what you’d think it sounds like. While this may be a cop-out in terms of music journalism 2.0, it beats saying nonsense like “…the mystical union of sonorous bonghits from a land that’s the crossed out stepchild of Black Sabbath and The Incredible String Band…” cut off only by the soundless scream of a knife being drawn across the windpipe of the soul unfortunate enough to put such nonsense to paper.
Let us clarify things, rather than obscure them: Om is a post-stoner band that is hard bass and ride cymbals and monosyllabic words about something or other. “Post-stoner” in this context means “slow and throbbing but without silly lyrics about getting baked.” Current 93 is totally batshit crazy in a really great way. Mr. Tibet proves it possible to be deeply religious, to be totalized without being fanaticized to the point where socialization with those outside of your little memeplex becomes impossible.The Om track is not their most compelling work, but it may be one of the last things recorded by the original duo. Still don’t have a damn idea what’s being sung about, but it has a flat, steady counterweight to that exquisite bass sound and is, like all things they’ve released, perfectly balanced.
The Current 93 piece has a lot more weight to it, pulling from the throbbing rock-esque thud of Black Ships Ate The Sky. It’s a good way to get people whom you don’t care for to leave your house. For some reason Mr. Tibet’s voice inexplicably scares the hell out of those nervous souls who are easily disturbed, and the angry recorder and feedback drones won’t make them feel less creeped out. I feel like I get it, though I couldn’t recognize the presence of God in this world if He sat down and gave me a handjob.
From this neat interview in White Heat:
WH: A dream was also the inspiration for the new album, Black Ships ate the Sky?
DT: Yes, Black ships started about four years ago. I had a dream where I saw the horizon, and a black shade came into view and I didn’t know what it was. It looked like a smudge, a black mark. And then it hopped, like a stroboscope, staccato, with a staggered motion. I realised it was the prow. Then it came into the horizon. First it was hundreds and then thousands and thousands of ships and they all ate the sky. When they passed through the sky, they devoured it. All the sky they left behind was corrupted and decayed. I realised in this dream that this was the armies of the Antichrist. In the album I describe the Antichrist as the final Caesar, the last Caesar. It was the invasion and the arising of the Antichrist, which is of course what happens before the Second Coming of Christ.
[…]
People always say that I’m obsessed with the apocalypse and I’m very doomy and full of fear, but for me this is all a hopeful time. Apocalypse, from the Greek word unveiling. People now think it just means destruction, but it just means taking off the mask. And these are the times we are living in.
It’s crazy, but I get it.
here there be rodents 