ninehertz

‘Toltec doom’ they call it – the band is from Seoul, with members both Mexican and South Korean in origin, thus taking inspiration from an ancient pre-Aztec Mexican civilisation into this weird, wonderful and often baffling sound. ‘Doombient’ is another self-coined term. Neither will prepare you for the oddness within.

Across four tracks Nahua create a vortex of sound unlike anything you’ll hear anywhere else. On Miccaotli discordant guitars and ghostly synths coalesce into a strange whirlwind of off-kilter noise, abrupt stops and restarts, drones and blackened minds – by the time I realise, one song in, it is too late for me, but for newcomers – beware! Only madness lies here.

Off key guitars repeat to oblivion, devolving to a natural drone state, wood instruments arrive from nowhere to lead the beat. Mitotli Tezcatlipoca feels like a revolving kaleidoscope where every image is nightmarish and changing every second, a new weird fiction sci-noir narration with repeating sentences and black hole thrown plotline confusion.

As the deconstructed mechanicalistic industrial noise – hot glued back together in a vague approximation of its former construction, now toppling and creaking – of Yoalli Ehecatl brings things to an end, you’re left feeling slightly out of shape. I’m not sure what Toxcatl exactly is, maybe even less sure whether I like it or not from a pure listening experience perspective, but I am drawn through intrigue to its uniqueness, and an enamoured with its bold individuality.