Haare — Submagic

According to Wikipedia, “drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece” – a definition that captures the very essence of Finnish noise musician Haare’s latest album, Submagic

Haare a.k.a Ilkka Vekka has been a solid presence on the noise-drone scene for more than twenty years. More closely aligned with the world of metal, noise and occult rock than the avant-garde, his music is unequivocally dark – in the most extreme sense of the word. And being from Finland, with its well-deep-rooted lineage in obscure experimentation, Haare is perfectly placed. With albums released on labels including Freak Animal, Total Black and RRRecords, Haare also records under a series of pseudonyms including Golden Vomit and Sutra, alongside playing bass as part of the classic-cum-doom metal band, Steel Mammoth.

For his latest album though Haare is sitting firmly in the drone camp - there’s no thrashing guitar or throbbing percussion here. But make no mistake Submagic is incredibly heavy in spirit as Haare mines his occultist leanings to create three indelibly opaque tracks that portray a dystopian future. Influenced by Thelema (Aleister Crowley’s occult and esoteric philosophy of ‘Do What Thou Wilt’) and the spirit of the 1970s occult revival, this a sonic explosion on an esoteric and somewhat sinister plane.

Submagic opens with the aptly titled, ‘The Wasteland’ and the sound of wind (or is it a train?) Soon the drone enters, reminiscent of early Throbbing Gristle, but does not progress into a ‘song’, instead this is the unremitting hum that endures through the entire track and album. The drone holds the line while the soundscape of a nuclear fallout persists within earshot. This is not calming, this is not meditative, this is pure dread. The music rarely diverges from its singular journey, incorporating the spaciousness of dub, while its sonic accompaniment peaks and troughs with what could be an actual drone buzzing in the background halfway through.

The second track, ‘Psychocosmography’ – nice play on words - lures us into a soothing lull, but we’re soon right back into the harsh reality of the cosmos. This track more than the others surfs traverses the world of space. It hints at the synthetic sounds of early sci-fi with its beeping and tweaking but all the while the drone holds strong. Less synth, more industrial. This is a voyage into the unknown. There is an essence that we are caught in a passage of time gone by and to that the title is hugely significant - a nod to the history inherent in the present.

The album rounds off with the title track. More of the same but with much more of a percussive edge this time as cymbals (or cymbal-sounding percussion). Once again, the industrial drone is the star of the piece, but this takes it up a notch, until the last five minutes when there is a semblance of melody – discordant albeit -with synth notes futuristic and foreboding in equal measure.

Put simply Submagic is a totally mesmeric ride. To check out the album drop by here