Anatolian Weapons / To The Mother Of Gods / Beats In Space

This was the other musical surprise brought by the month of May. Anatolian Weapons` long-player To The Mother Of Gods on Beats In Space.

As someone who’s followed Aggelos Baltas` Anatolian Weapons project, I was knocked outta whack by how different this is to his previous gear. The excellent releases on Lurid didn’t even hint at the music found here. If I had to label, or attempt to pigeon-hole, those Lurid records, I`d have them down as modern EBM, or the mid-tempo Ethno-Techno championed by the patrons of Dusseldorf`s Salon Des Amateurs. A Strange Light From The East got remixed by Khidja into a sought-after percussive, symphonic, Jazz-chanted, dance floor suite. The recent Black Sea E.P. highlighted the plight of Greece`s refugee population – all proceeds went to charity – and curried comparison to the Durian Brothers and ON-U Sound.

This new album eschews big, electronic beats, and instead comes on like Areski meets the Velvet Underground. Czesław Niemen`s Laur dojrzały. It`s all machine-assisted, Psyche drone-soaked Folk. Aggelos` production supporting the ethereal songs of Seirios Savvaidis. Acoustic strum, and synthesized sustain and shimmer. The drums are live, slow, ceremonial. The rhythm tapped out on cymbals, funky snares, while tambourines shake. A march in “shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather”. Accompanied by Psychedelic Raga and Dream Syndicate dirge. The stuff John Cale brought with him to V.U. Played on organ, Roma violin, strange-stringed things, and woodwinds. The guitars, trebly, echoing Bernard Sumner`s Lou Reed variations / mutations. In places To The Mother Of Gods also recalls The Liminanas` fuzzed-up Garage Rock. But this is no Ye-Ye Freak-out. It`s a Karma calmer. Complete with Hippy harmonies on Chaire Eos. The final track reprising the first. Drifting out to sea, Mediterranean, Aegean. Or space, outer, inner. Or into history. To a lost west Asian landscape, once the cradle of civilization. Back to the beginning.