Corrupted — Felicific Algorithm/Mushikeras

This CD, presented in a black and white digipack with collaged imagery and lyrics (in both Japanese and English), collects up two recent releases from Corrupted, the legendary Japanese doom band. Having lost their original vocalist, Hevi, the band have perhaps wandered a little, and thats evidenced here, with Felicific Algorithm and Mushikeras. The former release was originally a 12” on Cold Spring, notably devoid of anything sounding conventionally like a doom band, and the latter was originally released on Corrupted’s Bandcamp as a digital-only release.

According to the Cold Spring site, the two tracks from Felicific Algorithm are not simple reissues but reworked versions (it’s not hugely clear) of the original material. The material in question is what makes the release stand out in Corrupted’s discography, the pieces were constructed in 2016 from field recordings made in Amagasaki, Osaka, and Fukushima between 2012 and 2014. Now, this might initially sound like a radical departure for Corrupted, and it could feel like an anomaly in their discography - you won’t find any pummelling drums, riffs, or vocals here, and I can imagine that this might have disappointed a lot of fans. However, Corrupted have always had a more exploratory, soundscape-y side to their work, and the tracks, both around the ten minute mark, really slot into that area as more concentrated versions. ‘Felicific Algiorithm’ begins with eerie drones and pulses, before finally jolting into a much louder, noisy section, comprised of cut-ups, white noise, feedback, junk scrabble, raw electronics, and disjointed melodic sketches, all panning around the stereo field. This extended exploration of noise textures ends with a gong-like sound and cuts to silence, with the remainder of the piece completed by resonant drones and underwater rumbles.

‘Felicific Aligorithm’ picks up where the previous track left off, layering dark, throbbing, bass-heavy drones across the duration, modulating subtly, and again decorated with the sounds of water. It’s not what Corrupted fans might have expected upon its release, or even wanted, but it’s solid work, and compliments their established sound well.

Mushikeras is a 27-minute track, recorded 2022-23, and whilst it doesn’t reach the heights - or indeed depths - of Corrupted at their mightiest, I can’t imagine any fan feeling short-changed by it. It follows the general pattern of the band’s previous long-form works, building crescendos from melancholy post-rock adjacent guitar picking into louder doom passages. It does this well, and to my ears produces some of the band’s most accomplished melodic moments, with Lambdoll singing where Hevi might have slowly intoned across the music. The piece begins with piano and Lambdoll’s melancholy, even wistful, vocals, after which the guitars creep in and around the seven minute mark take a darker turn with the first notable appearance of a riff; thereafter the track builds and decays, and builds and decays, winding through several excellent passages that effectively explore the less loud territories of Corrupted, including one where it cuts to drums and quiet guitars whilst Lambdoll warbles away in a ‘witchy’ style, followed by a section of accomplished gothic guitar work. At points, and this doesn’t feel like a fitting comparison for Corrupted at all, the band sound like what you might hope all those ’satanic’ 1970s folk rock bands would sound like. If there is a solid criticism to be made, it’s that Mushikeras never fully or convincingly drops the hammer on a full-blown passage of heavy playing, in the style that Corrupted are rightly revered for. It does try, and certainly the end section of the track does achieve an intensity, but it would be fair to say that it never reaches previous peaks; part of this, perhaps, is because the vocals are somewhat high in the mix, and it’s noticeable that at a few louder moments where the vocal has been deliberately backgrounded or submerged, the band do sound more effectively heavy. There’s also perhaps a lack of discernible or memorable riffing, though there are passages where the brutality of previous works does reappear. This is all perhaps unfair criticism: a running theme throughout this entire review has been comparing the entire release to previous Corrupted recordings by differing line-ups, and this is legitimate but bands are allowed to change and develop, so Felicific Algorithm/Mushikeras should be considered on its own terms. In that regard, the louder sections of Mushikeras do sometimes feel ‘textural’ in nature, and are effective in that sense; the vocals are also much more versatile than Hevi’s, and whilst his vocal cords are missed, Lambdoll’s much wider range of sounds and dynamics opens up the music, and I would suggest that this is the recording where Corrupted sound the most free - perhaps neither a good nor bad thing, just different.

Both halves of this album might test long-standing Corrupted fans; the first half disappears into abstract soundscape territory, whilst the second pulls Corrupted’s traditional sound in a more gothic, and colourful, direction - and I can imagine lots of lukewarm reactions. Certainly, I can imagine that many might get this purely for Mushikeras. However, buying it for that reason will hopefully allow people who previously dismissed Felicific Algorithm to revisit it, and hopefully agree with me that it fits seamlessly into Corrupted’s output, full of dread and doom, but expressed away from a traditional doom band format. Mushikeras is also a departure, if less radical, and truth be told I was myself initially lukewarm; however, repeated listening has revealed a track with so much to explore, and the Corrupted of old is definitely in there. I look forward to where Corrupted go next.