Council Estates Electronics
Arktika
Glacial Movements
Brace yourself, the winter music is coming. As temperatures drop, the need for the sound of coalescing ice flows and slow moving heavy equipment increases. I found these two Brit synthesizer gurus (Justin K. Broadrick and Diarmuid Dalton) in my mail box, and they are ready to move out, set up orange cones, and get a job done.
They start with “Urals,” here an industrial beat track overlaying some heavy, sonorous mountains; sheathed in cold, surrounded by ice, and deep in old Soviet territory. Next they introduce us to a very large ore crier called “567 Foot 33,500 Ton”, the beat goes on and now the sounds of underwater propeller screws from the Red October joins droning noises as metal sheets slowly contract under cold water pressure. The intensity increases with “Type LK-60YA”, now screw pitches are straining, and just below the water line is a reactor with the goal of driving this load all the way around the Northwest Passage.
The northern ice-breaking glories of the Old Empire infuse this album. Not much differentiates the tracks, but all pay homage to one of the things the Old Empire did best: they broke ice, and moved stuff through. Perhaps they won’t listen to this particular album but those frozen soviet sailors have heard theses sounds. It may be getting cold where you live, but not as cold as these cool tracks.
