Genetic Transmission – Lullabies (Album – Zoharum)
Genre/Influences: Experimental, Noise, Ambient, Electro-Acoustic.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Zoharum definitely has something with Genetic Transmission and that’s not of a coincidence. They both are hailing from Poland. This work is the eighth chapter in the label’s instalment of albums re-issues, “Lullabies” being originally released in 2005. Together with the previously released “Strychnina / Music for Acoustic Installations” both albums were originally released in 2005 and featured common elements in their approach.
Content: This work features 5 untitled tracks and it’s not that strange there are no titles. You feel walking throughout a sonic labyrinth created with Electro-Acoustic gear and field recordings. The cuts are once again creating a compact and dense opus characterized by a sonic cocktail of noises. The 4th cut features some effects of screams. It’s hard to say if they’re expressing terror or just complaining, but it injects an extra, mysterious touch to the work. The album comes to its final point by a heavier mishmash of noises and voices.
+ + + : And here again I should say this is the kind of production awakening the curiosity of music freaks into Improvisation and Noise. I like some passages for their strong visual aspect accentuating the tormented style of the work. Both last tracks are more elaborated and ending in a pure hodgepodge.
– – – : The Experimental and extreme approach of this work, which is a characteristic for these kinds of Electro-Acoustic music, remains hard to endure for non-lovers. This is extreme music for extreme souls…
Conclusion: You should buy this album together with its predecessor so that you get a kind of twins release to remember one of the most legendary artists in Experimental music.
Best songs: “Untitled 4”.
Rate: (6½).
Label: www.zoharum.com / www.facebook.com/zoharum
About Genetic Transmission
Genetic Transmission is the main recording name of Polish artist Tomasz Twardawa, a key figure in the country’s underground industrial and noise scene since the mid-1980s, when he also co-founded the groups Zilch, Ladne Kwiatki and Godzilla. Twardawa released over 30 albums under the Genetic Transmission name on his own label, Die Schone Blumen Musik Werk, before his death on 16 July 2020. “Lullabies”, originally issued in 2005, is reissued by Zoharum alongside its companion release from the same year, “Strychnina / Music for Acoustic Installations”.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
