Morkobot ‘Morto’ CD/LP 2008

Morkobot 'Morto' CD/LP 2008Lin, Lan and Len have been at the mushrooms again. This is a sonically stout and viciously noxious offering from the experimental Italian three piece that throbs and buzzes like a huge malevolent alien brain trapped in a fluid filled tank. Thanks to the enigmatic Supernaturalcat label, genuinely great and challenging music consistently belches out of the sonic volcano of Italy: Ufomammut; Lento; Farwest Zombee; and of course these schizoid metal warpers. We are witnessing the red dawn of a new Roman Empire. Nero would soil his toga if he knew.

‘Morto’ is one forty minute concept track, due for release in November 2008, created by two bassists and one drummer, and split into three hefty parts. Part one takes off suddenly in a shower of molten metal then slows to a rumble reminiscent of very early Sonic Youth. The rumble builds gradually like an electrical storm fizzing and humming, at times gaps appear where the staccato angularity of the bass and drums are exposed like ribs on a rotting carcass. Part one ends in eerie near-quiet, evocative of some dead landscape on a far flung world. I am trying hard to resist using the dread phrase ‘soundscape’.

Part two thrusts in like an interstellar dreadnought, all fat and gnarled bass lines and drums smacked hard and crisp. Furious cosmic sludge funk ensues; the interplay between the gurgling basses and the frenetic polyrhythmic drums sounds like the mighty Meshuggah in a dark spaced out mood.

The final part of ‘Morto’ is part math rock, part giant irritated wheezing cyber-locust. Bizarre techno-convulsive noises like the dying throes of a moon sized super computer screech out of the speakers. The album doesn’t rise to a final climax but instead breaks down to a sustained and shimmering wash of unsettling extraterrestrial electronica. As testament to their skill and vision, Morkobot could easily lapse into post rock experimental cliché but never do, instead they navigate the listener through a nightmare future of insane technology and cold technocratic dystopia, running through a bewildering and combustive stew of instrumental styles like some mad cybernetic Frankenstein made from bits of Miles Davis, Lemmy and Stephen Hawking. Hold that concept.

Label: Supernatural Cat
Website: www.myspace.com/morkobot

Scribed by: Adam Stone