Bohren & Der Club of Gore: Geisterfaust
Wonder Records

Cologne-based Bohren & The Club Of Gore (Thorsten Benning, Christoph Clöser, Morten Gass, Robin Rodenberg) strips its death ambient sound to its skeletal core on Geisterfaust ('Ghost Fist'). The group's fusion of funereal ballads and metal doom—Deathprod meets Black Sabbath, if you will—first appeared on Gore Motel (1994) followed by the double-disc Midnight Radio (1995), with Sunset Mission appearing after a five-year break and Black Earth two years later. 'Bohren' may be German for 'drilling' but the group shares little sonically with Einstürzende Neubauten; if anything, Geisterfaust is so minimalistic (stark arrangements of Rhodes piano, vibes, bass, and drums dominate the recording, though a saxophone appears briefly on the last piece), it makes Music for Airports sound like breakcore.

The opening epic “Zeigefinger” sluggishly (detractors would say interminably) crawls through twenty curdling minutes of Rhodes ruminations; when plodding drum and cymbal accents appear three minutes in, the moment startles coming after such sleepy calm. There is development but of a glacial type: choral voices softly enter at the seven-minute mark and the piece eventually turns into a death march that allocates more space to rests than actual music. The Rhodes melody in “Daumen” ('Thumb') barely manages to establish itself amidst cavernous spaces of soft hiss, while “Ringfinger” suggests a slightly more doom-laden Angelo Badalamenti composition stretched to three times its normal length. Amazingly, the group rarely strays from its slow-motion style, determinedly resisting any urge to quicken the pace; only the closer “Kleiner Finger” (little finger) flirts with a more conventional tempo and even lets some sunlight pierce the darkness.

While its static quality limits its potential audience appeal, Geisterfaust is noteworthy on a number of counts. First of all, unique for the genre, Bohren & The Club Of Gore eschews volume-heavy sludge for a minimal and quiet sound. Secondly, the group defies convention not only in its choice of tempo but by sacrificing soloing for a collective sculpting of sound. Finally, for those patient enough to stick with it, the album induces a re-calibration in the listening experience as one gradually acclimatizes to its pace. Geisterfaust is the aural equivalent of a body slowly vanishing into oily quicksand.

August 2005