Ô Paradis / Escama Serrada - La Corte del Rey Pescador / La Reina esta Mala Saturday, August 01 2009 @ 02:00 AM PDT
Contributed by: Jack The Ripper
The pop that is often referenced when Ô Paradis comes to scene is nothing related with the charts, it is more merely a delusion on pop logics and thematics, a strange collage of uncommon constructions and accompaniments with equally odd vocalization. There’s a barely melody to accompany the substantial principle from its own, but there is certain syntony with some of its aesthetics. Think for instance the Accordion crossed with the contrabass loop that constitutes the basic structure while the rest of drum cuts does form the track “La verdad de los peces” distilling a Tango feel floating in a set of strange post industrial breaks. There is a pop essence in there indeed, at least a cruel imitation with some industrial feel and to it and a seemingly awkward appeal. Voice from Damien is typically broken and atonal but it does irradiate a strange effect that helps the mood of the tracks, accenting the feelings of hopelessness and spleen or favouring the demented passages that some songs evocates. Track “El paraiso perdido” for example shows Damien in a close effort to proper singing. This track comes as some sort of post industrial ballad, constructed in a fixed piano chord and odd chorus samplers that sounds like crackled songs from a distant past, it is particularly melancholic, filled with heartbroken feel to it and ends in a very strange way, almost like a decomposed music box repeating a routine with strange distorted samplers and an off voice from Damien getting strangled by slowed down tempo. New surprises awaits in “El final de un reino” which is a very surreal piece full of sampler webs, resembling a very disturbed dream and a martial snare as the only rhythm that accompanies its transit.  The more intense piece is probably “El trono de la razón” that uses fixed rhythmic sequence that sounds alienated and full of dense bass lines and robotic sequences while the voice strangely chants as strange object in these apparels.

Second Disk presents a different leitmotif, Escama Serrada dedicates his effort to create an album more focused on atmosphere and feeling, and less on poetic inductions, “La reina está mala” is revolted in a surreal incidences and patronaged by a general Post Industrial construction made of monolithic collages of song samplers, small clips and effects which are recollected to create some sort of an historic memorial, a maelstrom of sounds to summon mind frames and to submerge the listener in a sea of multiple vistas in one single spot with its very jammed fashion. Track “I” open with some obscure 60’s ballad a la “Brother’s four” and then transcends through a psych folk passage rhythmically marked by some machinery sampling (taken from some Fear factory album) and a myriad of other atmospheric echoes that gives the track this phantasmagorical and hectic form, surreal and oneiric. “II” shows the clear participation from Demian on the vocals, this time partitioning the voice in, one as the typical Demian troubadour and the other in a low tone, in quasi agonic distortion like effect. This continues the spooky narrative that follows the concept from the strange reigns that both bands are sighting during the work. “III” is yet another surreal collage that definitively brings this atmosphere of insanity and instability that will be maintained as a constant during the rest of the album. After a set of background effects, a compulsive bass line sampler gets followed by some mechanical guitar play (that seems to have been taken from the strange concoctions that Daniel Ash from Bauhaus used to invent back in the days) here Demian comes for the last time, singing completely demented, in a crepitating its vocal chords like a living dead. “IV” & “V” are a descent into the subconscious labyrinth, emphasizing the surreal elements that conformed previous atmospheres. To highlight is the track “VI” which seems to portray a very obscene phone message that was subdued but around which all the track was formed, displaying again this compulsive rhythmic quality that brings tension and dynamic to the narrative.

Ô Paradis manifests again his emblematic set of loathing love songs demonstrating authentic philosophical and poetical qualities to implement a narrative which is both definitively rare but gentle and mechanically addictive. Think of a conflagration between the past and the future where everything is absolutely irregular and uncertain, where instrument forms the sounds of the city and drums the cadence of the machines while the only human aspect, the voice is referenced as a distal point, isolated and alien. A medieval troubadour lost in the asphalt jungle. Escama Serrada is a good partner of games, his optics are somehow similar, at least its logics and basic aural construction are, but his ambient wanderings are entirely different, practically differentiated by the uniqueness of his own sets, its hectic and suggestive progressions that ends in the corridors where the only transients are personal nightmares and iconic dreams. Recommended work! A must for modern juggernauts!

I know the magic, but fear has disillusioned it. All promises have expired. The sea of my soul no longer brings to me its waves. You can find some pills and gin on my stomach, some tired thoughts on my mind and nothing in my hands.

Pre-orders have already shipped.


AVAILABLE DIRECTLY THROUGH ESKIMOFILMS.COM AND SOON FROM SOLEILMOON (USA), OLD EUROPA CAFE (ITALY), TREUE UM TRUE (GERMANY) AND TWISTED VILLAGE (HARVARD SQUARE - CAMBRIDGE, MA). Presented as a vinyl + digital download set, the debut from Ô Paradis/Thomas Nöla lovechild Les Paradisiers creates an exotic jungle of fear giving way to ecstasy, perdition meeting paradise.

"Wakening with a dark, twisted chorus of bird calls and throbbing bass, the debut album of Les Paradisiers is a darkly psychotropic romp through the lush, bohemian jungle of the mind.


The aberrant mating of the Demian (O Paradis) and Thomas Nola (et son Orchestre) has birthed an eerily beautiful trip through the depths of darkness, the pit of the jungle, arcing outward in a radiant, rampaging gypsy caper. Filled with slow, sinuous beats, one is reminded of tiger prowls and snake coils; the dark grit of the voices pull you deeper into an inky black seduction. Guitars strum you to sleep as the creepers twine about your arms; maracas hiss in your ears, and your feet sink deeper into the mud of this crooning dream. Triumphant and moody by turns, this album is filled with an erotic desperation that pounds in its percussion, and slides through its multitude of eccentric instruments- theremin, melodica, and guiro combine to crawl up your spine, raising the hair on your neck.


This jungle of their creation is a dangerous one: the birds coo quietly here, in the night, in the moonglow; the men growl and wail and moan in their exotic world. You’re in their country, now; you’ll quiver when they say, and dance at their command."


- 3.14.net


And why not cover your body in a shirt with a crying bird (see below)?


AVAILABLE IN MOONGLOW BLACK OR MENSTRUAL RED IN THE SHOPPE.

Tourette : 2009
Format : 2 x digipak EP CD

So this is a strange little release courtesy of the fine folk at Tourette, 2 separate digipaks by different artists but only sold together as a single release. Escama Serrada is the moniker chosen by one Sergio Mendez and this is his debut. I’m not sure of the connection to Ô Paradis other than logistical. They are both residents of Barcelona, España.


“La Reina Este Mala” blends elements of musique concrete, industrial, folk, martial and even a bit of synth pop. A few of the tracks would even be at home on a few of the noisier drone records I own. Old record samples collide and intertwine with more organic sounds, horses whinnying, babies crying... I think I even detected the squeak of an old rocking chair. They’re chopped up, processed and used to create something completely new. At times it’s bizarre circus music, at others some mutated lounge disco and always...and I mean always keeps you guessing. He’ll start out with some straightforward neo-folk guitar riff only to derail you half way in with strange acoustic cranking noises. I’d compare these instances to a Spanish Waldteufel. In a lot of experimental music, artists tend to make tracks extrodinarily long, but that’s not the case here. Only one of the seven untitled tracks even passes the four minute mark. Highly original and quite an enjoyable listen, I look forward to hearing more from Mr. Mendez.

Anyone familiar with the neo-folk scene is aware, if not a fan of Ô Paradis. He’s been at it for awhile releasing several albums on Allerseelen’s Aorta label as well as several for Punch. This disc is slowly becoming one of my personal favorites I’ve heard from Demian, the man behind the music, and features some sampling help courtesy of Sergio from the above mentioned Escama Serrada. Jazzy and upbeat at time, but still featuring Demain’s suave baritone vocals, there’s something his laid-back delivery that makes me wish I was sipping wine outside of some outdoor Barcelonian café frequented only by the locals. Then taking a several turns to the mellow and introspective on a few tracks, filled with lopped percussion, piano, accordion and sung in what this gringo is assuming his native Catalan. There’s a dreamy yet earthy quality I’ve always appreciated of Ô Paradis, even when the music is more aggressive. There’s seven tracks here as well, making La Corte Del Rey Pescador the yin to La Reina Este Mala’s yang.

This is an original idea and great dual release. Each digipak features beautiful cover paintings by artist Ricard Recio and the two come tied together with a sash. You can contact Tourette direct for ordering info in the US and available from several distros elsewhere.

LES PARADISIERS - "More Tales from the Garden" - Disques de Lapin - Coming Summer 2009

Wakening with a dark, twisted chorus of bird calls and throbbing bass, the debut album of Les Paradisiers is a darkly psychotropic romp through the lush, bohemian jungle of the mind.

The aberrant mating of the Demian (O Paradis) and Thomas Nola (et son Orchestre) has birthed an eerily beautiful trip through the depths of darkness, the pit of the jungle, arcing outward in a radiant, rampaging gypsy caper. Filled with slow, sinuous beats, one is reminded of tiger prowls and snake coils; the dark grit of the voices pull you deeper into an inky black seduction. Guitars strum you to sleep as the creepers twine about your arms; maracas hiss in your ears, and your feet sink deeper into the mud of this crooning dream. Triumphant and moody by turns, this album is filled with an erotic desperation that pounds in its percussion, and slides through its multitude of eccentric instruments- theremin, melodica, and guiro combine to crawl up your spine, raising the hair on your neck.

This jungle of their creation is a dangerous one: the birds coo quietly here, in the night, in the moonglow; the men growl and wail and moan in their exotic world. You’re in their country, now; you’ll quiver when they say, and dance at their command.

- 3.14.net

I can't listen the insects this night...Is the end of the world?...This show have been wonderful and terrifying, but my heart was always broken cause the beauty, broken and happy...Every boom-boom from the heart has cuted time in billions of lies...Who wispers in my ears?... demons... angels...or maybe just the wind...yes, must be the same wind that delete my steps on the sand of paradise.
Your place in paradise is marked with a cross, but you know it yet.
Love to you all.