BELONG – October Language

(CD, carpark)

“October language” captures the mood of falling leaves and decaying lives in an amazing orchestral scope of slowly winding drones, that inspite of their obvious noise-level still sound soothing and calm. Even when right there in the first track the atmosphere turns from warm and welcoming to harsh and drilling, only to recede off into the far distance at the nod of a head and then slowly fade out into the horizon; even then it is clear that Turk Dietrich and Michael Jones are rather akin to kindness and solving of problems than to extremism and kicking people out of the front door. Or at least, all emotions and epic excitements blur into one big wall of blinding white fog that lingers on for what seems like hours, rising and falling with the tide. And behind all of the sunlight and the warmth there hides an unspeakable melancholy and sadness, that will seep into the listener like the cold air on a Midwestern autumn night.

The easy way out would be: imagine My Bloody Valentine’s “loveless” album without drums, melodies or vocals and then stretch out the rest into larger portions of drone and you are close to this album. Back then I marvelled at MBV and instantly fell in love with that record on a very subconscious basis; I would have been unable to tell you why I liked it so much, and still do. But I never ever would have guessed at how many people it still influences. Back then there was nothing like an electronic music scene as it is today. It is wonderful, and not a bad thing at all. Because my love for this old record is rekindled by new ones like this one by Belong and stretches out and encompasses this one as well. And now I am slowly forming words to what was back then in a completely new way.

The language of October in the album’s title is nothing else but the impressions and signs that nature itself speaks to us during autumn melted into sound. A finer allegory couldn’t have been made in the last ten years (that is leaving those classical pieces of naturalism out of the equation, of course). Belong arise from their precursor (who will soon enough turn into a curse) by being even more minimal and monolithic, without losing any of the wide range of their sounds. Still, they retain a range of sounds that goes from the small and singular tingling wave (“all equal now”) to vast and big landscapes of sound that are massive and impressive (“Red velvet or nothing”). Sometimes even moving from one pole of their spectrum to the other in one song.

The aforementioned “all equal now” stands out in two ways. For one it has the most obvious, nice tingles and jingles processed into its almost syrupy layers. And second, here the duo uses the old jetplane landing sound-figure to burn a big ray of blurring noise into the track, which makes the track the one with the highest potential for extremity; or at least for incorporating the most extreme parts. Yes, there are people who like to live close to the airport for the sounds alone. There are some of them out there. But there are more important questions. For instance this one: Is there anybody out there, who doesn’t like autumn? I wouldn’t believe so.

Me, I always figured the “perfect day” in Lou Reed’s song to be one on a warm autumn’s day, with the first leaves falling, a cool but gentle breeze flowing and the sunlight so clear and pleasing to the eye in the cooling air. Autumn is a time for waiting and for watching the time go by, not for action or loudness. I never felt the falling leaves or the slowing down of the fauna to be a sign of death or mortality, but rather one of resting, catching breath after the affluence of summer, and getting into the mood for winter, after which a new springtime will start the endless cycle of nature once again.

Life and nature isn’t at all about balance. Yin and Yang is just easy bait for people looking for bullshit that is easy on the mind. Life and nature is all about cycles and progress. Birth and death are integral parts of this cycle (no, I am not a Buddhist). And no, it is not a loop, because there is progress and the next cycle might end up somewhere else, than the last one, but still it is all good. And that, incidentally or not, is also the basic structure of the music by Belong and there is nothing to be said against artists being so in touch with the rise and tide of nature that this eternal and eternally changing movement seeps into their music as by itself (or on purpose). I think I’ll put on some Big Black, before I get all washed away into esoteric territory by the beauty of this record.