ninehertz

Here’s a short EP release I happened across in the Christmas period; three songs from Spanish band Ozki that get right to the point and instantly cements them as a band to follow.

This is caustic noise-sludge, dwelling in a sub-Primitive Man subterranean world, naturally sounding positively demonic – ugly and slow as it should be, lurching, hanging riffs, a wonderfully lethargic mess of sludge. The opening title track eventually gains some propulsion, only just mind, joined by some industrial noises in the background which merely dehumanise the whole thing further, before it simply stops, exhaustedly run out of steam.

On Kexaka the vocals speak of a disturbed disposition, the instruments pounding a simple, menacing line atop, the whole a combination of satisfying doom darkness and fucked up noise, not unlike Lord Mantis at their most chaotic. Jarraitu is even more unhinged, initially shrouded in a glorious doom mood set over mechanical guitar and unsettling background public space sample noises, it stumbles about shambolically to the point where you wonder if they’ve lost all energy, until the vocals suddenly spur things along, spat out with plenty of vitriol. It’s still a morass of noises – discombobulating in its weirdness.

I’ll probably not listen to this track again often if at all but mainly due to the unnerving sense it distils, but otherwise Ozki have made an impression – sludge as chaos, bringing a deranged darkness to these happy, family filled times of supposed joy.