The work was composed by Penny Rimbaud- who will be known to many as the drummer & founding member behind Anarcho-punk/experimental collective Crass. For this release, he’s joined by Eve Libertine(also ex-Crass)- improvised vocals & lyrics, and Charles Webber- improvised piano & additional electronics

The work is broken into eight tracks- though I think these are more index points. The whole thing opens with a dark & tense mixture of stretched & mangled clutters, drones and reverb- within less than a minute Libertine’s coolly moody & chilling spoken words appear- they are inciting a rather stark poem about moments of clarity, around this you get more stretched & mangled elements, and fairly soon the addition of operatic backing vocals. When the poem finishers we start to get a blend of operatic segments from poem, along with mangled & drifting operatic voice wavers- this added to  this are the building & more noise bound blend of stretches, shreds & drags. From time-to-time things are pared back briefly- for stark operatic wavering, disturbing caterings,  or psycho ambient drifts- but these just prepare you for the next dense & nightmarish rush of swaying 'n' sheared textures & vocal elements.  The remainder of the track really follows a similar path of builds & sears, then brief pared back moments- it’s only in the last few minutes the whole thing returns to a more sparse & semi- mangled vocal based focus.

On the whole Kernschmelze II was rewarding in it’s intense & brooding seesawing structure- at times maybe it does feel a little over-stretched & repetitive in both it’s themes & layout. But for the most part, it kept my attention- creating a worthy blend of starkness & sear.

I’m not sure I can see Kernschmelze II appealing to the dyed-in-the-wool Anchor punk fan, as aside from Eve Libertine spoken word elements & the more noise bound edges, there is little that links it into much of the work of Crass. But if you’ve either followed Rimbaud’s work since his most infamous project, or enjoyed the more noise-bound, often free-form & experimental sides of the band like Yes Sir, I Will album- I think you’ll get something from this release.