Black Chamber - Generation Zero

Hear The Track Here

Yay, I get to start the month off with a new name (at least to me). The fact that this artist described themselves as 'weird, twisted, surreal, artistic, introspective, avant-garde, original' only served to pique my interest. Different/difficult music (by whichever word you use to describe it) is usually original, even if its originality is putting a different slant on a familiar angle. Generation Zero is billed as Psychedelic Rock by genre and 'an end to mindwash religion, nowhere politics, and bogus philosophy' according to Black Chamber. Now I am a well known reviewer of the more obscure reaches of this thing we call music and, frankly, nothing frightens me any more. Which probably explains my easy acceptance of this complex, odd wander through what I can only assume is the local steel mill.

In it's later stages, there are some nice touches and a definite nod in the direction of one of Black Chamber's influences, Jimi Hendrix, showing that sometimes where there is noise there is beauty. Not something for people of a nervous disposition then, but certainly something a hardened experimental veteran can scoop up and appreciate. I don't think Black Chamber is as out there as (say) Pilesar or even Guanoman, being much more electronica/industrial - at least on this track. The weirdness comes from the sounds themselves which is definitely not the case with the P and the G, and it's a fairly recognisable weirdness - especially to an old acid head (Ed: you were going to say 'like me', weren't you? weren't you?)

Nonetheless, with the caveat that you actually like listening to aural confusion, Generation Zero is actually quite listenable. Especially if you've just dropped a tab of primo LSD. These days though I'm old and LSD is a long lost pipedream, so I made do with a quick snort of bathroom cleanser instead. When I got back from the hospital I had plenty of time to listen to this track with it's extremely well crafted creation of a true psychedelic sound. Still gives me flashbacks even now as I write this, or maybe that's just the residue of the bathroom cleanser (note to self: not all white powder is white powder, know what I mean?). Ahhh, the difficulties of being old in body and nine in spirit...

Highly Recommended musical acid trip.