Human Quena Orchestra

The Politics of the Irredeemable

Crucial Blast 2009

An oppressively monolithic crush-beast is what Politics of the Irredeemable is.  Relentless in its single-mindedness, Human Quena Orchestra pound all signs of hope from your body as the grind your bones to dust.  The first song up is Progress with its incessant thunderous piston-pounding beat of heavy drums, bass and wall of guitar.  With the wailing guitar feedback laid over the top of this all it manages to come across like the minimalist protégé of Streetcleaner era Godflesh.  Breaking the mold from the relentlessly crushing beat, Mores (part One) is more ambient and calm in nature yet no less suffocating.  Industrialized squeals and sharp feedback arcing against submerged vocals harshness combine into a grating wall of noise which lurches along, propelled by those same gargantuan claps of rumbling thunder on Mores (Part Two).  Haunting astral textures breath in between throbbing metallic bass strings and assembly-line drum machines on Denial (Part One).  Bringing proceedings to a close is Denial (Part Two) with its string strangulation soundscapes and scraping metallic hisses rise triumphantly with the ever pounding drums.  Though stripped naked, the spirit of Godflesh lives within these walls.  The massiveness of the sound on this album cannot be put properly into words.  Each colossal thud is heavy and vast and weighs upon your shoulders like an avalanche.  After nearly an hour of constant bludgeoning and claustrophobic industrial atmospheres I am left completely drained and devoid of emotion.  All feeling and resistance has been slowly smashed out of me.