Sunday, April 23, 2023

Entry 426 - Parashi - Pilot's Salt


 I've been dreading this moment in my musical evolution. As conventional music gets more and more samey, unconventional music becomes more appealing. This cycle continues until the results are barely musical anymore... simply a collection of sounds... noise...

On Pilot's Salt, Parashi creates textured and multi layered soundscapes that can only be called noise. There is nothing musical, the is no melody, no modes, no meter, not really even any instruments... nothing. It's just sounds that are manipulated into various levels of feedback and distortion resulting in much more of an experience than a lasting memory of an album.

If you asked me what was on this album I could not tell you in musical terms. There are no riffs, no melodies, or anything concrete to point at to say "wow that really stood out!" No... Parashi has completely eschewed anything of the sort. In its place are... things...

Let's look at the final track for a moment, Concrete on the Rim of the Coffee Cup. For the first five minutes or so a single tone reverberates harshly over various soundscapes. This tone fades in and out and feed backs upon itself to the point where it hurts to listen to sometimes. Below it is a low rumble that is akin to lava boiling. Eventually the tone gives away to an oscillating tone that fades in and out and eventually dies in a pile of static.

Is this enjoyable? Probably not. Is this the kind of "music" that is appealing to me right at this moment. Hell yes it is.

Music is so much more than just a melody or a riff. At it's core it's an experience... a memory... a feeling. Parashi has seen this and distilled music down to its most basic form... to it's most pure essence: communication of raw emotion.

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