Upsilon
Acrux
Volucris Avis Dirae-Arum- 12"
ESS006
ltd. to 500 on clear vinyl
Tracks:
Uaxaca
Ballet Instructor / Dracula
It Takes A Nation Of Unicorns (To Hold Us Back)
A Quart Of Zolex
Night Of The Goblin
The Court Of Zolex
Valence Electrons
When Satan Ruled The Ocean, Jesus Made My Fishtank Boil
Your Geometric Hyena
45 Rodents
The Seventh Gateway Of Ninib Called Adarj
Crazed prog of the brutal variety. Calling the San Diego area home, this, now, 5-piece's 4th full length sees the inclusion of a second drummer and even more abstraction and variety. Like a thousand points of plight aimed directly at your sternum, each time change'll knock the fucking wind right out of you. Playing chess in reverse never seemed so complicated, so they took a chainsaw directly to the board and made queens from guitar strings and kings out of the shards of mangled drumsticks. Crisply produced and packaged exquisitely in resealable slip cases, multiple transparent acetate sleeves, and clear vinyl for staggering visuals to accompany staggering music. Get this shit now before you're paying This Heat prices for it on ebay. Vinyl is a split release once again with our main money makers over at Rice Control. CD available on Planaria.
REVIEWS
THE
WIRE
a
good review that I will type up soon.
DUSTED
MAGAZINE
San Diego’s Upsilon Acrux never had a real foothold in the short-lived
brutal prog explosion. Since they were never especially brutal, anyway,
Upsilon Acrux were somewhat of a step-sibling to bands like Orthrelm,
The Flying Luttenbachers, and Ruins, anyway. The quintet were, however,
the most obvious students of the prog tradition, both in music, and references
to their musical forefathers (the album title In the Acrux of the Upsilon
King should be evidence enough of the latter). The aforementioned album,
wordy title and all, was over 70 minutes of intricate, athletic music,
but a sameness and lack of surprise made it seem like more of a showcase
of flexibility and dexterity than anything else. On Volucris Avis Dirae-Arum,
however, Upsilon Acrux make inconsequential any past imperfections with
an album that deftly both pays homage to and modernizes the old school
of progressive rock. While there are still plenty of musicians who first
made their marks in prog and, to this day, remain musically significant
(Fred Frith and Robert Wyatt come to mind), there’s something revitalizing
about hearing a band like Upsilon Acrux hitting their stride like they
do on Volucris Avis Dirae-Arum.
The complex time signatures and breakneck tempo changes one might expect
haven’t been abandoned by the group, not by a long shot, but Volucris
Avis Dirae-Arum relies on more than these jaw-dropping pyrotechnics to
be successful. The band has always utilized ambient constructions, and
while such material exists in less overt forms here than its predecessor,
the quintet still have the ability to make instrumental music interesting
at any speed. It’s Upsilon Acrux’s songwriting that sets them
apart, not flashy instrumentalism or fiery bombast. An impressive cover
of Goblin’s “Night of the Goblin,” is a great link between
the past and the present, and the stereo split of drummers Derek Bruns
and Jesse Klecker is another novel attractor.
The band’s self-termed “maximalist” aesthetic has reached
its fruition on Volucris Avis Dirae-Arum. It's tastefully done, without
heavy-handed resurrection of the more clichéd fragments of prog’s
past.
By Adam Strohm
OBLIVION
(if anyone wants to translate this for us we hear it's good)
Alter Falter, welche abgefahrenen Geschichten laufen wohl im Epicene-Office
in der Mittagspause ab? Oder welch´ stickige Luft herrscht dort?
Oder zirkulieren bei den Besprechungen über mögliche neue Acts
gar irgendwelche Drogen? Was könnte wohl als Erklärung für
die durchgeknallten Signings der US-Underground-Plattenfirma herhalten?
;-) Fakt 1 ist jedenfalls: hier müssen echte Idealisten und Avantgarde-Freaks
hocken, denn mit den Acts des Labels spricht man unter Garantie nur eine
geringe Liebhaber-Fraktion an. Fakt 2: Nach Behold...The Arctopus, Time
Of Orchids und Carrion gibt´s einen neuen, noch schwerer zu verdauenden
Brocken namens Upsilon Acrux. Das Quintett (Gitarre, Bass, Moog-Synthesizer,
zwei Drummer, kein Gesang) aus San Diego frickelte elf wahnwitzige, echt
verwirrende Songs in die Langrillen, die man vielleicht als kontrollierten
Chaos-Mix aus Jazz, Math-Metal, Fusion und hochtechnischem, avantgardistischen
Seventies-Prog bezeichnen könnte. Also für Fans von King Crimson,
Ephel Duath (ohne deren Härte-Faktor und Affenmann-Brüllsänger),
Goblin (von denen man hier sogar "Night Of The Goblin" nachspielt),
Gentle Giant oder Behold...The Arctopus durchaus antestenswert, wenngleich
man die Extreme auf "Volucris Avis Dirae-Arum" recht häufig
arg auslotet, weswegen ich das Teil mit Sicherheit nicht gerade täglich
auflegen werde (oder auflegen kann, das übersteht man nämlich
nicht regelmäßig!). Man muss sich schon auf ein recht bizarres
Musikerlebnis einstellen, wenn man Songs wie die sehr cool betitelten
"When Satan Ruled The Ocean, Jesus Made My Fishtank Boil", "Your
Geometric Hyena" oder "It Takes A Nation Of Unicorns (To Hold
Us Back)" auflegt. Die CD-Version kommt übrigens über Planaria
Recordings, mir liegt jedoch die auf 500 Exemplare limitierte, im durchsichtigen
Vinyl daherkommende Scheibletten-Version von Epicene vor, die mit einem
ausgeschnittenen Gimmick-Cover veröffentlicht wird, das wirklich
edel wirkt. Fazit: Interessantes, aber enorm heftiges Teil, das man mit
Vorsicht genießen sollte (oder muss), denn hier herrscht akuter
Freak-Alarm! Bewertung: Ich hab´ immer noch nicht die geringste
Ahnung....deshalb gibt´s keine numerische Einschätzung.
