david wallraf & monad node - Un culte sans r​ê​ve et sans merci

Released: March 31

Collaborative albums always have an interesting tendency to bring out unexpected ideas from artists. This recent effort from David Wallraf and Monad Node is such an example of interesting combinations with three long tracks that seem to highlight some of the finer points of each's styles. Wallraf is known for creating subdued and surrealistic textures, most of which lean heavily in the direction of dark ambient and avant-garde. Slow moving musical noise that simmers with touches of the muttered vocals that gives form to his work. Conversely, Monad Node creates similarly dark in tone but much more aggressive in presentation, preferring to work with harsher and heavier sounds. 

These preferences blend together wonderfully, if not a bit subtly from the first track, "Zu sagen was ist." Beginning the album with a nearly fifteen minute slow burn is a interesting choice, but one that works out well with the context of the two following tracks. Low and music bass hits strike a cinematic tone, keeping the tempo slow with eerie pads and garbling textures moving us slowly along. Coming to the second track, this dynamic keeps mostly the same although the percussion becomes much more pronounced, defined. A scorched earth industrial wasteland sound emanates from this track, almost as if we are looking at the last vestiges of a highly industrialized society that is quickly fading away. It is rather poignant considering the title translates roughly to "Anyone who doesn't want to talk about capitalism should keep quiet about fascism."

As the album comes to a close, we are left with a guitar (I think) driven ending that incorporates the seething textures of the previous two songs with a industrial punk backdrop that picks up the pace compared to the previous entries. It brings us from that deserted industrial wasteland to time when this decaying paradigm is burned to the ground. It gives an oddly hopeful note to the album as it slowly fades away at the end. It is a nice endcap to the commentary the album contains about capitalism, society, and our role in it as it borrows from some of the greatest philosophers of the modern era.