Short Reviews [Ygodeh - 2019 - "Bunker 132"]

I’ve been in contact with Piton for about 5 or 6 years now, reviewing both Ygodeh and Sectlinefor, and one thing I have always really enjoyed about his work is his refusal to accept what has happened in the past and to keep reinventing what is going on. Back with their fifth album, Piton (synths, guitars) and vocalist Andre S Cura have reinvented the band and the image. Cura is now Reverend Jeyzus, a mad self-proclaimed prophet of YGODEH turing every live performance into a sermon, while Piton is a sociopathic surgeon who performs live on a home-build guitar made from an old vacuum cleaner and some tent poles found at the side of the road somewhere in Tottenham. They have been joined in their Mad Max post-apocalyptic world by bassist Dan King who goes under the guise of The Kaptain, a former submarine brothel owner who after a mutiny was left drifting around the Atlantic in a rubber dingy with only a bottle of Captain Morgan as company. Having lost his mind, he believes himself to be Captain Morgan and the band bus to be a pirate ship. The line-up is completed with the addition of drummer Morten Fausboll who in real life is of course Melissa Rable, a gender confused, bionic pleasure machine that was found discharged by the side of the road. After recharged, showing incredible, pre-programmed rhythmic capabilities, she was put behind the drums. Got that? Musically it is very much business as usual, or at least whatever usual business is in the twisted world of these guys. Piton was originally in straight death metal band, and he has taken those influences and combined them with synth and rap to create something which is dark and very, very twisted. Andre is also still as demented as he has been since he started working with Piton in 2012, with gruff death vocals giving way to Eminem-style rap, while musically they try and give voice to the image they have created. In many ways the photos one can find on their wonderful website, is a visual representation of what one can hear through the speakers in that it is a jumble of so many things that just shouldn’t sit together, ever. This is music which is progressive in its truest sense as it pushes through and makes a big mess of everything it touches. There are times when it comes across as the weirdest underground pop you’ve ever heard, at others it is crunching and dirty, often all at once and there is a feeling of real passion, power and an incredible sense of being. I am convinced that 99 people out of 100 will think this is awful, but that 1% will find something here which is both majestic and inspiring, taking the work of bands like Art Zoyd and twisting it into something special and different indeed.