ALUK TODOLO – LUX

vote
7.5

• Band:
  ALUK TODOLO
• Duration: 00:38:52
• Available from: 06/09/2024
• Label:

• Norma Evangelium Diaboli

Streaming not yet available

Music for dissolute souls, music for those who abhor clichés, music for those who seek strong emotions and want to be overwhelmed, surrender to notes that travel wildly unaware of formal rules, seething with supernatural strength and unclassifiable visionariness. The proposal of the French Aluk Todolo has never been and will never be – we hope – something intended for a large audience, for the masses, for the mainstream. It is characterized by being something hermetic and for a few, and with this we do not want to give an elitist idea, as if one had to possess who knows what intellectual gifts to understand it. It goes without saying, however, that an album like “LUX”, as has been the case for all the past works of the transalpine trio, is not that docile and measured listening to which everyone could dedicate themselves. Entirely instrumental, divided into individual tracks once again without a real title, “LUX” is an alchemy of sounds with only a few semblances of humanity here and there, while for the rest it appears to us as a wild, haunted immersion in a sensorial universe dripping with absurdity and hallucination.
Probably reached the creative peak with the monumental “Occult Rock”, manifesto of the trio’s thinking for the sum of ideas, extravagance, eccentricity and desire to challenge others, also given a length practically double – over eighty minutes – compared to the other works of the band itself. Not that with the following “VOIX” things have become easier, Aluk Todolo have not magically become more digestible, but surely a shorter duration causes less difficulty, due to contents that are still dense, full of details, elusive and totally non-linear.
In the face of “LUX”, it is difficult to speak of a new evolution on the part of the group: in essence, it is simply Aluk Todolo doing things like Aluk Todolo. The special and unique mix of black metal, post-rock, krautrock, jazz, psychedelia is as usual declined in scores that barely fit into recognizable and not too impetuous areas in the initial phases, to then disperse and go crazy, expand everywhere, tentacular, instinctive and yet guided by a precise design, however labyrinthine and difficult to understand.
They define their music simply as 'occult rock', and it is obviously not what we usually consider 'occult rock': a definition of which the French give a very personal interpretation, but also a good one, because the sense of unfathomable mystery, of a cryptic message contained, hidden, between the notes, is actually palpable. It is not even a coincidence that the trio has played in deconsecrated churches in the past, as a certain sacred charm emanates from what they play, especially when the rhythms are less whirling and an unhealthy darkness, as in the most malignant doom, descends upon us.
The restless instability of the bass, the wavering in the indefiniteness of the guitar, the crooked and capricious drumming of the drums, give you a headache, in an incessant process of construction and deconstruction of the sound material. Psychosis often takes over, the pressure becomes unbearable, in an exercise of style and exploration of the possibilities of the instruments that is fascinating, even if not easy to tolerate for the entire duration of the album.
Despite remaining under forty minutes, the listening experience is anything but serene and you have to be well-disposed to the twisted passion of Aluk Todolo in order to survive it. You can then admire with pleasure the impulses to play thick, unstable and noisy as in the fourth track, or give in to a sick hypnotism, as in the sixth and final phase of this “LUX”. At most, you could object that the French, in their latest efforts, have not brought out anything new, after having expressed something more delicious and refined up until “Occult Rock”. No big deal, we still remain in the field of excellence and, what is even more important, the group safeguards its uniqueness and the pleasure in playing unclassifiable and non-homologated music.