New Music From Human Impact, Christoph Heemann
Human Impact
Human Impact
(Ipecac Records)
In David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return, Special Agent Dale Cooper traverses time, space, and an abstract dimension to break free from the Black Lodge, where he’s been trapped in limbo for twenty-five years. The twisted and unsettling journey back to Earth concludes in a disarmingly new terrain. When he emerges, all that was once familiar has changed; the whole world is not as it should be.
Lynch’s beautifully perplexing vision makes a ready comparison with Human Impact’s self-titled debut LP. From the crackle of electricity and brooding ambiance that clears the way for the album’s opening number “November” to the paranoid grind of “E605”, Unsane singer and guitarist Chris Spencer leads an expansive amalgamation of some key noise rock and post-industrial musical luminaries.
Flanked by Swans’ rhythm section—drummer Phil Puleo and bassist Christopher Pravdica—and Cop Shoot Cop’s keyboard player Jim Coleman, Human Impact sharpens the intensity of the group’s collective resume while revealing a fresh new chapter for everyone involved.
The same is true of producer Martin Bisi. Bisi, who has worked with all the above-mentioned acts, as well as Sonic Youth, Foetus, Rhys Chatham, and more, has long played a role in hammering in the rusty nail scrape of New York City’s darkest outsider dirges.
The result of this collaboration is a scathing and melodic hell ride across scorched earth. In songs like “Respirator”, “Protester”, and “This Dead Sea”, Spencer’s voice leaves plenty of room for listeners to absorb the history, creativity, and chemistry that’s on display here.
“E605” illustrates the subtle, though no less confrontational, nuances of Spencer’s voice when he’s not screaming full-throttle a la Unsane. However, the measured approach with which he tackles these songs sacrifices nothing in terms of style.
The album’s dissonant, driving arrangements allow for space and interplay between instruments. Pravdica’s bass and Puleo’s rhythms barrel along in a glorious rush. The mass of disembodied voices swelling in “Consequences” create a chilling backbone for an album that is as muscular as it is creepy and cathartic—despite its apocalyptic imagery.
Christoph Heemann
Perception & Association
(Robot Records)
Drop a needle on “Time and Again”, the A-side of Christoph Heemann’s latest album, Perception & Association, and prepare to experience the slow build up to full sensory engagement, teeming with quiet power. A motorik bead of sound— tapes and electronic manipulation that melded together between 2012 and 2018—drifts in as a subtly pulsating drone.
It comes on softly at first. So much so that the staccato grind of a ceiling fan wobbling overhead, the faint hiss of traffic outside, or a cat leisurely walking along the floorboards compete with the subdued oscillations that grow slightly louder with each revolution on the turntable. Heemann’s slow hand guides the sound with eternal patience.
Change, however, is never fully imperceptible. The natural human sway of Heemann’s moving pitch is plain as day, moving faster, then slower, gaining intensity in an ebb and flow of meditative ease and subconscious anxiety. The result of this tension is the gradual formation of rich auditory hallucinations.
Sometimes it’s just a perceived texture. During other moments, the music can induce a dreamlike state. Soon it’s clear that the sounds of the natural world intruding upon the record aren’t coming from the natural world at all. A new pulsating rhythm reveals itself, like a distant moon orbiting a much larger body in space.
Heemann is a master of sculpting these inward journeys that have been dubbed “cinema for the ear.” From his mid-‘80s time as one-half of German duo Hirsche nicht aufs Sofa (H.N.A.S.) to ‘90s collaborations with Japanese noise artist Merzbow, and with guitarist Jim O’Rourke and the Legendary Pink Dots in Mimir, Heemann revels in expanding upon the subtle nuances of sound, time, and their relation in space.
On the B-side, “The Trains” invokes the same synesthetic drift as “Time and Again”, with a more tumultuous presence. It’s impressive to see just how much Heemann stirs up using very few moving parts. His style is akin to minimalism, but the composed nature and determination of these two works places them in a universe of their own.