Beyond Ancient Space is the most recent release from Psychedelic Minimalist Doom band Bong.
Many people believe a bands name should be a reflection on their music and with Bong, you can pretty much guess what you're going to get. Long songs, complex sections with spaced out beats and imaginatively original guitar riffs. This 3 track release lasts an incredible 79 minutes and takes you on a journey through the nether regions of music, time and space to deliver something which truly bends the mind.
The opening track “Onward To Perdondaris” lulls the listener into a sense of serenity before exploding into slow, grinding guitars full of both harmony and dissonance backed up by a drum beat which both holds the beat whilst straying from it to add to what I can only equate to the feeling of blasting off on a never ending journey to the centre of your mind.
The use of ambience and effects guide the track through a wormhole of noise and unrelenting bass tones which can at times be very aggressive on the ears. Despite this, the constant lead line which the track centres around maintains a sense of peace and calm whilst the world collapses around you.
These themes continue throughout the second track, aptly named “Across The Timestream”. Here we find yet more grating bass tones and a real feel of destruction, helped by a crescendo in the middle of the track which calls to arms a full on aural assault, whilst still maintaining that haunting lead line through which we see a glimmer of hope.
With relative calm, the third track “Into the Shadow of the Towers” enters us into the final leg of this journey. This time there is less dissonance and a gradual crescendo takes us back into the core themes of the record. Once again slow, drudging drums and sporadic fills are dotted around abusive bass tones and yet more effects as we are guided back home.
This is certainly a release for people who are fans of Doom, Sludge and Psychedelic Minimalist music and I can't help but feel there are also influences within this record from Godspeed! You Black Emperor.
Truly this release is a journey of epic proportions that takes you from your bedroom, flies you across the galaxy encountering a full-frontal aural destruction that creates a sense of both content fulfilment and total annihilation.
Beyond Ancient Space by Bong is out now on Ritual Productions
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle
