Ben Chasny is an artist whose diffuse output is rather hard to pin down. Aligned to various threads of folk, from psychedelic and freak folk to new folk (not to be confused with neofolk, despite Chasny’s connections to Current 93, who’ve numbered amongst their personnel dubious characters like Douglas Pierce and Boyd Rice), his Wikipedia entry also identifies him as an ‘indie’ guitarist – whatever that may mean.
Under his Six Organs of Admittance outlet, he’s accrued a catalogue that’s little short of bewildering in stature since 1998, although one thing’s for certain: there’s nothing remotely folky about ‘The Hexadic System’.
To get any kind of handle on this latest outing, it doubtless helps to get a bit of background and to know that over the last two years, Ben has ben busy devising and assembling ‘a comprehensive system of musical composition’. According to the press release, ‘designed to free sound and language from rational order and replace calculation with indeterminacy, ‘The Hexadic System’ is a catalyst to extinguish patterns and generate new means of chord progressions and choices.’
Ben provides more detail on the band website: ‘This release is the result of years of working on a new way to compose music. We’ve been using the word “system,” but it would probably be more accurate to describe it as an “open system.” It is very malleable. The particular songs on this record were bent toward the idea of rock music.’
The result is something quite extraordinary, and while it’s essentially impossible for someone who isn’t a musicologist or someone otherwise versed in the most deep technicalities of composition to discern any form of ‘system’ of even a sense of formula to the approach, it’s still an album that has to be experienced rather than merely listened to.
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The mellow math-jazz of ‘The Ram’ does nothing to hint at the speaker-shredding guitar noise that bursts over a slow, deliberate rhythm section as it ploughs a deep furrow through ‘Wax Chance’. The waters of ‘Maximum Hexadic’ aren’t so much murky as erupting with subaquatic volcanic activity, the texture and tone of the devastating sonic assault reminiscent of the blistering squall of Head of David’s first album. It’s messy, chaotic and brutal, meaning the mellow interlude that arrives with ‘Hesitant Grand Light’ is extremely welcome. The softer, darkly haunting tracks alternate with the disturbing onslaughts which reaching new crescendos on ‘Sphere Path Code C’.
There’s a very good change it’ll leave your head spinning, but one thing’s for sure: you won’t hear another album quite like this all year.
Six Organs of Admittance Online
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