The Mortlake Book Club — Exquisite Corpse

Exquisite Corpse is a surreal, layered, shifting & often dense affair that blends together elements of throbbing ‘n’ buzzing synth craft, ritual plucks ‘n’darts, strange & esoteric samples, chants, and lo-key experimentation & atmosphere. It’s the first release from this four piece project, and appears as a CDR releases on the always worthy Reverb Worship.

The release takes its title & sonic structure from the surrealist artist’s parlour game of the same name, where sounds & elements are added together without the knowledge of the other members additions- to create a  deep though at times slightly muddled sound-worlds . So what you get here are four often very layer deep tracks, that are best described of dense psycho ambience, with elements of ritualistic leanings, surreal sound texturing, retro horror/sci fi electronics, and keen sense of trying to unbalance the listener.

I certainly respect & applaud what this project is trying to do here, but I’m afraid I found more often than not the results rather felt unfocused, confused, and ultimately trying. I know that confusion & unbalancing of the listener is a big part of the point of this type of release, but I just  found my mind wondering & at times even becoming even a little  bored by the whole thing. I do very much enjoy both very dense sound-works, & unsettling/ puzzling sound-worlds. But sadly most of what’s here left me feeling both underwhelming & really wondering what the point of the whole thing was. It often feels like it’s was just trying to be obtuse & odd as possible, but with out any reason or point.

So maybe I’m just missing the point  here, and if I unlocked that I would enjoy this more? Well I’ve now played the release numerous times over the last weeks/ months, in different moods, and gone from letting it drift as background, to trying to focus in on the details. And I’m still not getting it, or really finding anything that’s wholly appealing here, with the whole thing coming off as a muddled mess.

In conclusion I really wanted to like this, as it ticked a lot of boxes for me, and some of the people involved I have a lot of respected for, such as Darren Charles ( The Last House On Dead End Street, Equestrian Vortex, and the Horror Folk Revival) and Grey Malkin ( The Hare & The Moon). But I’m afraid to say it just didn’t work for me, been too muddled & obtuse for its own good. But the release is now in its 2nd or 3rd pressing, so who knows it might well click with you.