Short Reviews [Insect Ark - 2020 - "The Vanishing"]

Insect Ark are currently made up of founder Dana Schechter (Swans) and Andy Patterson (ex SubRosa) and have been releasing unpalatable and somewhat disturbing music since 2011. Schechter is a New York City-based multi-instrumentalist known for her collaborations with Swans, Angels Of Light, Gnaw, Zeal & Ardor, Wrekmeister Harmonies, and Arabrot, as well as her own projects Bee And Flower and Gifthorse, and within two months of first meeting drummer Patterson these songs had been put together. At this point they hit the road with Oranssi Pazuzu to bed in the material before heading to the studio with engineer Colin Marston (Dysrhythmia, Krallice, Behold The Arctopus). The result is a instrumental album which comes at the listener with a doom drone bass and drums attack which is only made somewhat heavier and in your face by the use of synths and other instrumentation to take the listener to a world that is infinitely depressing. Consequently when the band take a different approach such as the guitar-led introduction on “Three Gates” which has far more lightness (but more threat): it takes the listener quite by surprise and makes the other material even that much heavier. The drums/cymbals are often the cut-through, the light against the shade, providing both a melodic and rhythmic counterpoint to the menace which is on the other side. While structured and considered, this is also very experimental, and at times it feels almost like a psychological experiment to understand what reactions can be triggered in listeners. Krautrock and psychedelia combining in a lab with doom and menace to create something quite unnerving and potent.