Enphin Premiere “The Non-Returners” Video; End Cut Due June 24
Finnish electronic experimentalists Enphin will issue their debut/not-at-all-debut album, End Cut, through Pelagic Records on June 24. “The Non-Returners” (premiering in the video below) is the third single from the LP behind “Cut Flesh” and “Communion,” and if three seems like a lot of visual focus before the record’s out, the music earns the cinematic accompaniment. In the interest of full disclosure, Lauri Kivelä, Vesa Vatanen and I have been involved in a secret-so-far-type hard industrial project for more than the last year (there’s a record done, hoping to find someone to put it out). In Enphin, those two are joined by Joakim Udd and JP Koivisto, and the reason End Cut would be a “not-at-all-debut” is because Enphin are the latest incarnation of the band that used to be known as PH, and before that, were once the droned-out cosmos dwellers Mr. Peter Hayden. To their credit, the clue is right there in the logo: en-PH-in.
Putting End Cut and Enphin in that context, all of their releases are a turn from the one before, so that the same should apply to this 13-song/49-minute collection shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise. With the dance-ready opener “An Nihilist” — true nihilism manifest right in the grammar — and the electrogoth vibes of “Perpetual Night” and “Nothing,” the interlude-ish soundscapes of “The Test View,” “Kaiverrus,” “Drones” and the penultimate “Raunioina,” the meditative pulsations and synthesizer wash of “Moth,” “Communion”‘s heavier-landing beat and the more frenetic programmed chaos of “Protocosmic,” the four-piece bounce through moods and styles with out-there post-krautrock futurism and a Ulverian neo-New Wave atmosphere, progressive in construction and primal in much of the underlying rhythm despite the elaborate and well-mixed layers surrounding. The last PH album was 2019’s Osiris Hayden (review here) on Svart, and as they continue their seemingly perpetual evolution, one sound into the next, one guise into the next, Enphin carve out niches for
themselves while creating a world that is no more dystopian than that in which we live (maybe less, this week), but that in the urgency of “Cut Flesh” and the slow-unfolding resolution of End Cut in “Sang Unity” ahead of “Raunioina” and the nine-minute self-acknowledging capper “Endling” still manages to feel like a new reality.
So it is. I’ve said on any number of occasions regarding PH and related outfits that theirs is a work of extremity, and that’s true of End Cut as well despite some moments that willfully evoke a poppish sensibility. Enphin will not be for everybody, and having written about them for a decade before knowing them more personally, they know it. But if it’s extreme, it’s a purposeful extremity. They’re not just blasting you with noise — and to say they are would be ignoring the dynamic shifts in volume, tempo and tone across the album’s span — each piece has an expressive position within the record’s entirety, even “Drones” with its obscure speech, off-kilter key notes bridging “Protocosmic” and “The Non-Returners” so they, like the rest of End Cut, flow together as one consuming, multifaceted entirety before the final wash of “Endling” moves with unhindered beauty into a blinding techno afterlife. Suffice it to say that anywhere Enphin go, they establish a claim on their territory that speaks to the members’ extensive history in trying something new, finding what works, and then using it to swallow listeners whole.
And while one may raise an eyebrow at the marketing strategy of changing the name of your band as readily as an album title, it’s hard to ignore how easily “The Non-Returners” slips into the unspoken narrative of the video that follows here. I’m not looking to give away the ending, but I think she killed a guy. In any case, the song’s methodical unfolding, effects-carrying melody and eerie vibe is emblematic if not nearly entirely representative of the full album, even in combination with the clips for “Communion” and “Cut Flesh” near the bottom of the post, so consider it more of a teaser than a stand-in for End Cut. You’ll find it plenty immersive for its four and a half minutes, just the same.
Please enjoy:
Enphin, “The Non-Returners” video premiere
For over 21 years, Finnish psych doom outfit ENPHIN have been pushing the envelope of their sound and their upcoming album End Cut sees the band incorporating elements of new age, synthpop and early electronica. Complemented by the ambient vocals of electro-pop singer Ringa Manner (Ruusut, The Hearing) ‘The Non-Returners’ listens like the sonic propaganda of a new authoritarian regime of extraterrestrials that sits nicely on playlists like Electronic X or pov: ur in an 80s film driving at night.
The discography of Finnish industrial outfit ENPHIN is marked by name changes and highly conceptual compositions exploring a Jungian-Alchemical spiritual progression theme. “Communion” is a dignified space doom overture in which the quartet from Kankaanpää proclaim the unity of all. Amidst shimmering synth textures and spirited moaning of members of the fairer sex, we find a feverish manifesto on the interface of early electronic music and psychedelic doom metal.
Tracklisting:
A1. “An nihilist”
A2. “Communion”
A3. “The Test View”
A4. “Perpetual night”
A5. “Kaiverrus”
C1. “Protocosmic”
C2. “Drones”
C3. “The non-returners”
C4.” Nothing”
B1. “Moth”
B2. “Cut flesh”
B3. “Dear Low Star”
D1. “Sang unity”
D2. “Rauniona”
D3. “Endling
LINEUP
Joakim Udd – synths, effects
Vesa Vatanen – guitar, vocals, programming
JP Koivisto – drums, guitars, vocals
Lauri Kivelä – bass
