Current 93 - Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain/Monohallucinatory Mountain

Having only experienced a fraction of Tibet's output, namely The Inmost Light trilogy, the split EP with OM and various earlier industrial soundscapes with a prominent Nurse With Wound feel, I have long felt the need to atone. The unsettling tone of Tibet's almost spoken word delivery of apocalypse has always appealed to the Mark Smith and EA Poe in me.

It is rare to find someone with such a singular vision.

Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain displays the same irritating multiplicity present in many other culty bands. The vinyl pressing comes with a superb side long spoken word piece with minimal decoration that is exclusive to that format. Similarly, the CD editions of the album come in either stereo or mono format. A word, then, for the differences. The stereo mix present on the first three sides of vinyl and the standard CD version is spacey and detailed with many small details sitting just below the vocal and roaring guitars. Warped vocals and electronic smears fill each track just beyond your reach. The mono mix is far more aggressive and 'punchy' and yet some of the smaller details are lost. Which version you choose depends entirely on how up front and aggressive you like your guitars, or if you prefer the subtlety of a deep mix.

The music itself seems to discard some of the more folk orientated material of the past, replacing it instead with repetitive and gnawing riffs and incessant drums. The material is clearly a progression from the song from the OM split, itself a hulking masterpiece. The slow tempos almost point towards a doom metal feel, but the music is certainly not amp fixated. Strings occasionally emerge from the fuzz, as well as some wonderfully appropriate acoustic, steel tipped finger patterns from James Blackshaw.

The lyrical themes seem to follow a character called Aleph, who is comparable to the biblical Adam. The images are fractured and disturbed with no clear narrative. I am not sure that I fully appreciate the lyrical content at present as meaning is as fleeting as the mysterious sounds that fill the tracks. Maybe I will have more to add to this as time goes on.