Bark Psychosis

Is a revelation. I've been looking for revelations. Three revelations of late. One, I've been enjoying silent films. First Murnau's The Last Laugh, Dreyer's Joan of Arc, and just recently Murnau's Faust. Something about these filmmakers; something primal. It helps that Herzog says that Murnau is one of his touchstones (if not influences) and Cassavettes said that Dreyer is one of his influences.

Second revelation has come in the form of Italo Svevo's Zeno's Conscience. That book was so good that I can't quite come to terms with the possibility of reading any other fiction for awhile.

Third revelation is finally hearing the album Hex by Bark Psychosis. This 1993 album sounds like it was recorded this week. Apparently in his review of "Hex" Simon Reynolds had to invent the term postrock to describe it. As far as 90's bands that I didn't listen to in the 90's, they are right up there with Slint. And maybe much more significant than Slint. (They sound a little like Low, with some Cure: Radiohead, Sigor Ros, Tortoise, The Notwist except 10 years before the fact. It's uncanny.)

The irony is that the group broke up and formed a Drum N Bass outfit known as Boymerang. I just recently signed up with a site called britblogs and listed my blog as a drum-n-bass themed blog. Of course I hardly ever talk about drum-n-bass--and I'm not very interested in drum-n-bass right now, relatively speaking. Though I like to keep up to date with the beats. Anyhow, Boymerang had some pretty slamming tunes---but it is nothing like Bark Psychosis! Why oh why did they break up? The music is as pretty as anything on Explosions in the Sky except a billion times better.