Ahleuchatistas - On the Culture Industry

So it would be far too basic to lump Ahleuchatistas' On the Culture Industry as an album exhibiting a singular scheme.

Those “RIYL” tags magazines and press releases use to simplify an entire thought process into easy-to-use comparisons and generic recommendations are certainly handy aren’t they? Passive listeners raise the roof at the incredible ease in which thinking has been denounced to nothing more than association. Perhaps it is the fault of the many artists whose work is so lacking in any distinctive traits that we reviewers are left with such a feeble route for discourse. Maybe people just don’t listen enough; and thus quick analysis has become routine to ensnare potential revenue cows. Nonetheless, it is quite perturbing that Ahleuchatistas have so effortlessly been recommended to those who like Don Caballero and Rush. Not because the comparisons are without merit, but because Ahleuchatistas simply has a lot more to offer than just being some offshoot of the mentioned groups. Formed in the untapped resources of mountains high, this unrelenting trio is everything the rational listener dreads: that music is no mere form of comfort, no warm bed light to soothe, no outlet for understanding.

It would appear that the two characteristics most common in Ahleuchatistas that in one way or another could be derived from both Caballero and Rush would be the ideas of “progression” and “mathematics,” and while they do possess a certain progressive nature, there isn’t too much to warrant “math-rock” descriptions. That would mean there is some form of structure or certainly involved within the music and that negates the strongest aspect of what is on display here. This trio relies more on freeform expression than anything that would construe a distinct meaning or interpretation. And it can be said that music sans lexica is a far more challenging method of conveying ideas and emotions, but that is precisely the quality On the Culture Industry so strongly exhibits. There really is more that one way to absorb the bass-heavy, frantic, wavering of “Lacerate,” easily the album’s most winning combination of boundless and bounded instrumentation. Similarly, the rest of the album may pull instances from a range of styles – the eerie atmospheres of “I Don’t Remember Falling Asleep Here,” the frenzied metal leanings on “Fodder for Defamation,” and the more systematic deconstruction of noise in “Empath / Every,” (even briefly sampling instances of melody) they never quite settle for one lucid trait.

So it would be far too basic to lump On the Culture Industry as an album exhibiting a singular scheme. They’re very keen on breaking specific molds; boldly implying more complex, unstructured entities that have been formed from recognizable styles and genres. Repeated listens will evoke new understandings and ideas, undoubtedly awakening emotions previously unfelt – and that is a quality a lot of music today just isn’t built to do. Simpletons will be fazed; caught in a dimension wrought with confusion, fear, anguish and a complete lack of control. It is the very reason why so much of the aural landscape is so stale, and it begs the question (and duly answered by Ahleuchatistas): Why are we so afraid to be challenged?

(Angura Sound)