Themed
bands tend to be a little ‘hit-and-miss’ as they rely
upon their theme over their music, rather than exploiting it as
a foundation for their music. Dimension X is a theme band, but
a theme band with a twist. Firstly, their theme rotates around
the fantastic sounding 50’s cult sci-fi radio show ‘Dimension
X’, and secondly, they let the music do the talking. Consisting
of Chris Corsano (Bjork Drummer), Massimo Pupillo (Zu, Another
Band), and David Chalmin (B for Bang), the three-piece have impeccable
credentials in the avant-rock scene and have collaborated/toured
alongside some of the biggest scene-shaping names. A combination
of these mighty musicians and their broad, sonic-terrain exploring
influences suggests that Dimension X will be a strong, strange
and captivating journey into avant-rocks distorted underbelly.
The 13 minute opener serves as
a strong introduction to the concept and is chock full of fantastic
and quotable dialogue from the cult show. Musically, it starts
off pretty baron as the three-piece noodle away eerily in the
background. As the narrative starts to build a picture regarding
the concepts storyline, the instrumental elements begin to slowly
peak and trough at various sections throughout the first half.
Towards the middle of the piece these elements gradually start
to achieve a strong sense of cohesion and begin to coalesce into
a subtle yet foreboding, mechanical-sounding soundscape interspersed
with resonating melodic guitar plucks. Towards the end, the atmosphere
and tension build up into the all-to-brief climax where the three-piece
proceed to beat the sh*t out of their instruments, concocting
a nasty brew of instrumental blizzardcore. This outro really sets
the scene for what is to follow, and the next track, ‘The
Empire Never Ended’ quenches the expectations and appetite
created by the preceding track. Utilising strong improv-jazz dynamics
but playing with traditional rock instruments, the group create
a stomping mutant breed of sci-fi battlecore in the vein of spazz-math
mentalists, Necronomitron. Pounding, constantly looping and occasionally
meandering bass and drum swirls psyche out the listener whilst
dissonant guitar tones gradually build up into an out-of-tune,
out-of-sync, evil 16bit computer-game anti-melody which similarly
disorientates the listener. It really feels like all the instrumental
elements have been fiendishly devised and immaculately composed
to freak out the audience from all possible angles.
‘Hello Tomorrow’ initiates
with reverbed, stretched and mutated guitar plucks which give
an Old Man Gloom-esque (circa Seminar III) dissonant-harmonic
quality. After the woman on the narrative shouts “here’s
what I think of stability”, an onslaught of falling-down-stairs
music follows consisting of tight, clustered drumming, deep chugging
bass, freaked out guitar patterns and random oscillating noises.
The follow-up, ‘The Martian Chronicles’ is a really
nasty cacophony of instrumentation and mutated electronics. Completely
improvised yet brilliantly arranged, it sounds like a run-away
death train intent on running over anything and anyone that gets
in its way. The thick propulsive bass grooves and scatter drumming
really add an extra momentum-shifting dynamic to the piece and
give it that all-essential fluidity and energy which results in
a sound that is very much akin to Noxagt meets Ultralyd.
‘Dr Grimshaw’s Sanitorium’
is the real centerpiece, lasting an impressive 8 minutes and rapidly
exploring a diverse sonic range. As well as being the longest
track proper, it is also the most linear track, influenced strongly
by a noise-metal framework. The intro sounds like doom-laden Converge
at their most angry but instead of settling into a chugging metal
groove, the instrumentals start to engage in battle with each
other. They gradually and violently build on the sound in an ironic
attempt to move out of their combined structure. Eventually they
settle their feud and a bass driven, percussion heavy soundscape
appears and meanders until it is interrupted by narrative. Although
the piece is interrupted by narrative, the words are fascinating
(even on repeated listens) and serve to accentuate the effect
of the next onslaught of noise. The second onslaught is epic and
showcases the instruments engaged in full scale warfare. Sounding
like Lightning Bolt covering Supersilent, it is a constantly rippling
and aggressive tapestry of anti-melodies, electronic-skree and
mutant skronk which will send drug-using listeners over the edge.
The closer ‘Beyond Infinity’ is the most haphazard
track on the album, starting with misaligned and maladjusted electronic
frippery and discordant instrumental outbursts. These base elements
again start to moves towards what sounds like an actual track
before getting down to business with some hammering improv hardcore.
Unfortunately, there are continuous interruptions by random sounds
and narrative which remove any sense of cohesion but luckily,
this can be forgiven due to the tracks placing at the end of the
album.
Overall,
Dimension X is a stirring tribute to the cult show whilst being
a serious piece of manic, off-kilter psyche-rock undertaken within
a improv-Jazz aesthetic. They band play as if they are losing
control of their instruments and have to play faster and more
violently to suppress them, of course, this is whilst they have
been set on fire and are tumbling down a flight of stairs. Strong
yet raw production values and an underlying doomcore vibe adds
to the sense of grandeur whilst unifying the whole proposition.
Overall, Dimension X is a successful and unique take on leftfield
rock and will have fans of better known bands in raptures. If
nothing else, Dimension X will have you scouring the web for clips
of the classic sci-fi show.
For
fans of: KK Null, Old Man Gloom, Lightning Bolt, Hella, Zu, Noxagt,
Necronomitron, Zach Hill, Behold The Arctopus
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