Richard H Kirk - Dasein

The Quietus

Former Cabaret Voltaire multi-instrumentalist Richard H Kirk has long been a scathing political voice - one of the factors that meant that band had more in common with industrial contemporaries such as Throbbing Gristle or 23 Skidoo than any of the Duran Durans and Blancmanges they were sometimes compared to. Since Cabaret Voltaire dissolved, Kirk has continued to fashion a danceable yet oppressively dark musical language. Whether reflecting the decline of hometown Sheffield’s industrial past or barking angrily at demagogues and despots the world over, Kirk’s voice, especially his solo output, is one of agitation and resistance. So it’s no surprise that Dasein, his first full album in over a decade, is a howling echo of the troubled state of the world.

'Dasein' is a German word which roughly translates as 'existence' and, as simple as it might sound, this is an album that feels very present. It weighs heavily with portent and straddles a number of styles and musical strands. Each track bar one breaks the 10-minute mark, with a couple edging towards 20. Kirk sings throughout, which is novel, but his voice is more often than not swallowed into a vortex of dense, frenetic and flowing sound in which rhythm and melody hurtle forwards at breakneck speed, the various textures surging and dissolving in and out of a seething whirlpool.

Even the somewhat jaunty (at least comparatively) ‘Do it Right Now’ is based on an uneasy swirl of synths, with Kirk’s dislocated vocals and metronomic beats reminiscent of the best motorik krautrock such as Neu! or Harmonia. Coming at the midpoint of the album, ‘Do it Right Now’ can be seen as a calm break between two suites of unwavering aggression. Opener ‘Lets Jack’ is driven by jackbooted bass-drum kicks and the kind of warped wah-wah guitar that Kirk deployed so effectively on Cabs songs like ‘The Set Up’ and ‘No Escape’. Again, his mutated singing is buried deep beneath a cosmos of glimmering synths, bursts of white noise and the aforementioned guitar, but the ever-present rhythmic shuffle also reminds listeners of Kirk’s role in the crystallisation of rave music and UK house. ‘Lear Jet’ is similarly forceful and rhythmic, its pounding percussive loops a slowed-down echo of Cabaret Voltaire’s Three Mantras EP. Kirk’s voice betrays emotion on 'Lear Jet' as it moans like the ghost of Alan Vega trapped in a wind tunnel.

‘Nuclear Cloud’ emerges on a bed of oscillating synths like the opening to a Dopplereffekt album (again a sign that Kirk’s emergence in electronic music goes beyond the industrial, synth-pop and rave genres he’s most readily associated with) before a burst of noise signals a shift in gear and the arrival of taut snare snaps and hi-hat rattles. The effect is disorientating but beautiful, the house percussion adding a sensuality that juxtaposes acutely with the more brittle and glacial sonics around it. Track titles like ‘Nuclear Cloud’, ‘Lear Jet’, ‘New Lucifer/The Truth is Bad’ (now I wonder who that could be aimed at?), ‘Radioactive Water’ and ‘Invasion Pretext’ make clear Kirk’s political angst. As tensions ratchet up between the west and an apparently nuclear North Korea, as war continues in the Middle East and Theresa May and Donald Trump sit down with the dictators in Saudi Arabia, it’s hard not to see large sections of Dasein as a soundtrack to a nightmare collage of news feeds from the last few years - and from the dread upcoming future.

Dasein may be the most ambitious and complex album Richard H Kirk has created in his solo career, at least since 1983’s essential Time-High Fiction. Given that it and his other early solo records have recently been reissued in a lush box set to remind us of his unique approach to electronic music, Dasein doesn’t just feel important in its starkness and bleakness, but as the work of an artist who isn’t done exploring in inventive and exciting ways.

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Angry Metal Guy

I’d like to begin this review by discussing the gigantic fucking roll that French-Canadian guitarist Phillipe Tougas is currently on. Starting with last year’s release from Serocs, he has played on three downright kickass albums, all favorably reviewed on this very website. His work with Zealotry gained my notoriously stingy tech/prog-death approval, and his bizarre Timeghoul and Demilich-inspired project Chthe’ilist is almost certainly going to make the Kronos year-end list. And as if all of that wasn’t enough, his longest-running band, the neoclassically-inspired tech-death outfit First Fragment, is finally dropping their first full-length album, exactly six months after this firestorm began with And When the Sky Was Opened. Unfuckingbelievable.

Longtime readers will be quick with comparisons here, so let’s get this out of the way; despite his immense recent output, Tougas is in no way the Vardan of prog-death, and like all of his recent outings, Dasein has a good chance of absolutely flooring you. Everything that made the group’s acclaimed 2010 EP The Afterthought Ecstasy great has been retained. Beginning with “Le Serement De Tsion” and relenting nearly an hour later in a Chthe’ilist-like explosion at the climax of “Evhron,” this album has more dynamism, intrigue, and above all, notes than anything you’re likely to hear until maybe the next Archspire LP. It’s the sort of album that I always wished Fleshgod Apocalypse would make¹, full of Malmsteenian neoclassical wankery that’s tightly controlled by propulsive songs.

The title track “Dasein” is proof enough of the album’s potential, gliding into existence on a slick but dreamy almost klezmer-esque melody before the full band sets all knobs to ‘kill’ and really start shredding. The non-stop sixteenth note riffing manages to be so spectacularly pyrotechnic that the song’s screaming guitar solo is the least technical passage by far, and it’s followed by a fantastic bass solo section that shows that the band can really pull back and let one member shine. “L’Entité” follows with a flamenco introduction that’s obvious Kronos-bait, and completely works as such. First Fragment‘s ability to gracefully flow between not just riffs but rhythmic languages is best seen in this full-length instrumental song, but you’ll hear more great examples scattered throughout the album, like the swing stomp sections in “Le Serment De Tsion” and “Gula.”

Though Dasein is quite long, there isn’t a bum song on it, and even late in the album the band tucks surprises in among their mind-boggling riffery. Just when you think they’re running out of new ideas – as in the beginning of “Voracité (Apothéose, partie 1),” when a slasher film sample introduces a muddy instrumental passage – some solo or riff comes around to blow you out of the water completely. “Voracité” introduces a lead halfway through that, while somewhat buried in the mix, makes for a great backing track for sequential bass and guitar solos.

Though it’s the guitar work that really propels this album, the whole band is in on the gymnastics, and the drumming from Severed Savior‘s Troy Fullerton is prevented from stealing the show only because of how incessantly spectacular the string players’ performances are. But perhaps most charming is the work from otherwise unknown vocalist David Alexandre Brault-Pilon, whose all-French delivery matches the intensity and personality of the instrumental performances; his little spit-take at the end of “Le Serment De Tsion” is a truly charming moment and a mark of this album’s levity. But there’s even more to this album than performance, as its production is spot-on. the instruments are clean but far from computerized, and there’s enough space for the considerable dynamics in some of these songs to really shine through. Despite its near hour length, Dasein is barely fatiguing at all.

Dasein‘s incessant shredding and neoclassical flair set it apart form a North American tech-death scene that’s often too preoccupied with aliens² and clean production³ to write inventive, progressive albums and seat the band rather comfortably next to European acts like Spawn of Posession and Gorod. And between Christian Muenzner popping in regularly for solos and the group effortlessly swinging between jazz and neoclassical influences, this might be the most fun and impressive tech metal out there, and a far cry from the po-faced posturing of the band’s peers. Dasein is vibrant and colorful, but still brutal and incredibly fast, managing both to impress and beguile even the hardest-to-please tech death pedants [Vardan‘s been quiet for a while. Somebody should check on him. – Steel Druhm].

Score: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Unique Leader Records
Websites: firstfragment.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/firstfragment
Releases Worldwide: May 20th, 2016

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