ABU LAHAB - In The Whirr Of Quasars

One of my dreams, musically speaking, is to someday manage to interview the musician hiding behind the mask of Abu Lahab. A Moroccan agitator of the black-noise/post-industrial scene, Abu Lahab keeps releasing self-productions according to the dictates of a strict DIY ethic, never revealing his true identity, thereby avoiding, due to the blasphemous themes tackled in his records, retaliation from the most fanatical followers of Islam.

His most recent output hasn't, to be honest, matched the quality of his best work (above all, "Humid Limbs Of The Torn Beadsman"), although it's still driven by that same passion for disturbing, uncompromising sounds that also characterizes the four tracks on this EP, which operates on a slightly higher level than the previous "Tungasht".

"Disgorge The Simurgh" opens with a distorted, echo-drenched voice repeating a desperate mantra, while in the background a maelstrom of electronic sounds builds into a terrible roar. The kind of thing the very earliest Faust, the ones behind the transparent album, with the X-ray of a clenched fist on the cover, would have grinned ear to ear over. The track's second half is essentially a journey through a malevolent synthetic sludge.

The terrible blasts of noise on "Scalds From The Primordial Waters" are matched by brutal mixes of pulsations, feral distortions, gashes of horror electronics, bestial screams and industrial-symphonic discharges. Suspended between echoes of Diamanda Galás and demonic prayers, "The Third And Last Prayer" sets the stage for the pounding finale of "Portals To Meshnat", with its electro-industrial framework, looped monstrous death rattles and a creeping sense of decay that erupts into harsh-noise apotheosis.

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26/04/2023