Pyramids by Pyramids

Science fiction has evolved out of a human desire to know the hidden possibilities of our continued existence moving into the dimly lit territories of the future. Using what they know of our history as a spring board for our speculation, and by examining the predictive signs of current environment, visionary writers have cast light on our possible future whereabouts, and in the process given form and direction to that course through a creative process of divination. In some ways, Pyramids self titled debut has accomplished the same feat in the realm of musical prognostication. While the album was certainly built on a knowledge of past musical forms, the combination of that knowledge with an uncanny ability to twist old energies into entirely new shapes, they've created a truly predictive and compelling sculpture of sound and aural color.

Now, several years since its initial release, Pyramids first collection of songs resounds like a communique from a far off galaxy. It could be the music made by Martian interpreters who somehow intercepted and reconfigured the decaying din emanating from the charred surface of Planet Earth. The resultant impressions sound like cut up feverdream tape loops containing snippets of Xasthur, Tangerine Dream and Mazzy Star layered over, under and through each other. The aural pictures are at once terrifying and soothing, familiar and wholly alien. What seems like it shouldn't does in fact work: black metal blasting stitched together with patches of gauzy melody and angelic warbling. It's one of the most enveloping and simultaneously disorienting documents to have emerged from the hazy outer territories of the heavy music underground in years. Despite the numerous musical mutations that have sprung up around it since its initial release, Pyramids debut still sounds far beyond the horizons of anything concocted by modern musical scientists. Perhaps through a process of reversed time flow, Pyramids have brought the sounds of the future into our present moment, speculative fiction in aural form. It's hard to say whether we should be reassured or terrified by their findings, but it's safe to say adventurous listeners can't afford to ignore prophetic visions such as these.

Pyramids conjure the cacophonies of the great unknown, one song at a time.


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