3 out of 5

Label: VHF Records

Produced by: Antti Uusimaki, Colin Potter, Daniel O’Sullivan, Vincent De Roguin

Well, this is going to come down to whether or not you like Current 93, or rather: your tolerance for nasally, Bowie-sounding singers mixed into your experimental / industrial music, and navel-gazing proetry, and I’m sure I tipped my hand on my take with some of my adjectives.

But even trying to set that surface layer aside, you… can’t. I’d guess that David Tibet’s (of Current 93) presence guided the compositions here: Æthenor’s third outing finds them exploring some interesting ambient and drone realms of splashy percussion and plodding noise, but it’s not really as deep in those realms as their debut, or as occasionally chaotic as their wandering sophomore release. Rather, the music is fairly structured, needing, as it does, to support a vocalist / lyrics we’re actually intended to listen to. Which doesn’t mean it’s without ambience, of course, but the nod to Current 93 is valid – at least when they’re more musically included as well – the somewhat chaotic, cavernous clatter and doom-ish rumble found on prior releases is curbed for relatively smoother effects, limited to a set of instrumentation that’s a bit more intimate, and organic. Given the number of players listed, I’m not suggesting we’re stuck with guitars / bass / drums, but whereas before there was something otherworldly about the effects, Faking Gold & Murder exists on a much more recognizable plane.

Going back to the vocals, they really are make or break, then, because the production plays to this softening: the album has no hard edges. If you aren’t into Tibet’s sound, there’s not a ton to latch on to, and when you try to get into the music, his pitch is somewhat discordant with the “smoothness” of the instrumentation.

So: the third Æthenor project feels like a platform for its vocalist. That was also true for Betimes’ Kristoffer Rygg, though Rygg’s singing (scatting…) supported more experimental music as well, whereas Faking Gold’s approach is rather purposefully about making “songs.” They may be ten minutes long, plodding, and atmospheric, but there’s still more structure here than before, which – for me, at least – lessens the impact and appeal.