Raksha Mancham - Phyidar album flac

Well, I had grown an impression of what I thought this album would be like with it's Tibetan background and the 'file under Ethnographic Music' tag - somewhere between VASILISK & traditional temple music - quiet & Earthy. What you get instead is a harder, more aggressive music which brought TEST DEPT to mind with it's militaristic drumming & sombre political posturing. "Om" is just an 8 second simple drumming intro into "Fight", a 4/4 thing building dark grizzling keyboards over the thumping constance of the drums. Over this a voice spouts political words. Other deep timbred drums punctuate the medium-paced dance. "Mahabad" - named after a city with a rich (sanguine) history - combines Eastern stringed instruments with slightly wailing voice, creating a captivating atmosphere. "Tribal War (Armenian Nightmare)", again influenced by a bloody historical past, is where the power really kicks in, reminding me a lot of the battle scene from "Gododdin" - constant blood-stirring drums over which voices shout in excitation. "Waiting For Someone Who's Already Gone Away (Bön Version)" - a dirge to the dead, chilling & mournful, based on droning voice & sudden scatters of percussion. "Nostalghia" is again influenced by death, this time inspired by a suicide note - a strange thing which has the dread excitement & ambience of a city afire at night, the moans of the 'Woman With Whom You Make Love To Just Once' combined with harsh drumming, violin & recorder sounds. "The Pornography Of Despair...Red Star Over Tibet" - the title taken from a book & is probably self-explanatory, is a more passive thing built on rippling acoustic guitar & female voice, reading a passage from the book. "Portrait In Black (To The Very End Of Dead Oceans) (extract)" is a weird little noisework - a short, fascinating metallic pool of sound - far too short here. "Ngweko" builds a thumping drum-beat over a Masaï sexual ritual - reminding me a lot of something from the Burundi album - whispered male voice over drumming, combined with rhythmic breathing, keyboards & assorted sounds, all combined into an interesting little track, dark & fascinating. "Aborigenee" is a tribute to a much abused & maltreated people, a slamming drum thing built over a dark, cavern-like ambience - again bringing TEST DEPT to mind. "Karma (Aphordite & Lung-Ta)" is influenced by Tibetan beliefs, interpreted through droning voice & chants, percussion & minimal keyboards in a strange, disquieting ritualistic sound. "Chi-Shi Khang-Druk" is dedicated to Tibetan Freedom Fighters who have set themselves against the might of the dominating, genocidal Chinese Army. The music here is dark, thunderous bass with gnarled horn sounds. this changes into more minimal, electronic-sounding thing joined by tight, battering percussion while a male voice tells of the terrible things done to these people - again reminding me of music circa "The Unacceptable Face Of Freedom". "Kepulauan (Timor & Papua)" weaves a sound not unlike a tuned hybrid of violin & fog horn in between the simple drum structure, a deceptively addictive thing which lures the body to move in time with it's hypnotic sound. "The Prisoner (Geshe Lobsang Wangchuk)" is a chant with spoken word, distant percussion & feedback-like squeals, dedicated to a Tibetan Independantist victim of the Chinese Army. "The Last Days Of Khay Wangdi", another Tibetan leader, starts off slowly with droning voice & minimal drums before kicking off into a fast, furious Ethnic thing based on acoustic guitars & various percussion, having an almost sexual surging rhythm. "Tchin-Tabaraden-The Valley Of The Beautiful Girls" is about the Nigerian Army's assassination of the Kel Tamaheq people another atmospheric thing with almost biological drums, confused backing sounds (maybe guitar, but strangled & twisted) and a mournful vocal style. "The Last Human/The Last Indian" is based on the British & American's abuse of the Native American people & our invention of the concept of Genocide. The music has the sound you might associate with Red Indian rituals, the constant drumming having thunderous counter beats. Added to this is a variety of different sounds, electronics & chanting voices. "The Way To The Abyss" is based on Indian philosophy, a dark, mysterious thing, a song of reflections, refractions, of manipulated images & light - strange slow rhythmic thing which might almost be a film soundtrack - tense & nervy with impending event. "Wounded Knee (28.12.1890)" is of course about the infamous massacre by the American Army. It's a war dance, an invocation & fast dance to bring the blood to sufficient boiling point. "Chams" again reminds me very much of TEST DEPT, a fast drumming number with moaning male chant & noises. "Kepulauan (Chakmas)" is mainly keyboards & birdsong, this time concerning the massacre f these Tibeto-Burmese Buddhists by Bengalis. It's a mainly ambient thing, both simple in composition & complex in sound. "Fight (Deir Yasin - The Rape Of Palestine)" sounds not unlike an old GARY GLITTER number to begin with, the drums snappy with white noise FX & the electronic bassline keeping a Rock'n'Roll-ish simplicity to it. Having said which it's powerful, dark & strange, a dance piece which could almost sneak under the plastic barriers of Techno. "Durdag (Gyltsen)" closes the album. Durdag are 'sculptures: dead heads', and the tune is suitably dark & sombre, chillingly like a horror film soundtrack, and a suitable conclusion to an album which highlights so many real-life terrors. This has been a long review, but it deserves the space. Musically it's often simple, but the thoughts behind it are real eye-openers..Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.