B?iruth: On the Horizon
Spanish space rock trio B?iruth coincidentally came to my attention only a few short days after I happened upon a copy of Fooz‘s Space is Dark…it is so Endless at El Suprimo Records in Baltimore. I note the coincidence because two-thirds of B?iruth — namely bassist Jes?s Arn?iz and guitarist Juan ?ngel G?mez — cut their teeth in the underground folkish stoner outfit. By comparison one to the other, B?iruth is far more eager to shirk convention, as the instrumental band’s debut, Horizonte de Sucesos (Alone Records), clearly demonstrates.
Broken up into four individual pieces, three of which circle around 20 minutes and the shorter “Alamut,” which is a synth-driven — both Arn?iz and G?mez, as well as drummer Carlos “Charlie” Segura, contribute synths — interlude that follows opener “Penumbra Difusa,” the album shows that not only are B?iruth looking to stand out from the poppy retro psychers of the day, but also that their sound owes much to the European eletronica breeding ground that was the Krautrock scene. Though “Alamut” is the most synthesized of the four tracks, there is no shortage of noise and ambience in the other three. There’d almost have to be or they’d fall flat on postured minimalism and parts of Horizonte de Sucesos would have no sound at all.
Linking the three extended works on the record is a slow-build structure which leads me to believe the basic skeletons underneath were born from jam sessions rather than plotted out on paper beforehand. “Penumbra Difusa,” in particular as the first you hear when playing Horizonte de Sucesos unfolds itself at a pace that crosses over from casual to sleepy. The song almost sneaks up on you for the first four minutes so that when Segura‘s drumming finally comes in you have to jog your memory to recall it wasn’t there in the first place. It’s hypnotic, but not based on mantra riff repetition like simpler post-metal or stoner/doom.
“C.C.C.P.,” which comes after “Alamut,” commences the most sparsely of the three longer pieces, but is also the quickest to get underway. Synth noise and swirls fade into and out of obscurity while a straightforward drum beat lends a theoretical base to proceedings that might otherwise turn into an indecipherable barrage of noise. The track offers two main builds of tension and subsequent releases before devolving into a silence marked with playful siren sounds that leads into the title track’s somewhat more foreboding samples of a knife being sharpened and footsteps. I’m not sure what the narrative is, but I’ll guess it’s nothing wholesome.
A more than adequate portion of the closing cut is noise, with B?iruth reminding once again that they’re bound by nothing when it comes to their songwriting. One wonders though how much these songs were fleshed out in the studio when they were recording or beforehand during rehearsals. Whatever the case, the affect Horizonte de Sucesos has is an organic one — if self-indulgent as any music like this has to be to be pulled off correctly. I could have done with some of Fooz‘s acoustics brought in to ground the material and perhaps play echoed off of the drums, but for a beginning, Horizonte de Sucesos is as promising and unique as one could ask modern psychedelia to be.
