Vukovar, somewhere London 2020
This is one of those cases that I remain a little speechless with the result and amazed by all means. And this one is a little extravagant record. “The Great Immurement” LP by UK-based Vukovar will try to nail you and believe me, it will be easy if you let it absorb you into its strangeness, especially if you are keen on experimental stuff with a good reason. Τhe album is slated for release on April 25 via Russian independent label Other Voices Records, and it is coming to catch you unsuspected on the tail of the previews megablast; the fearful LP “The Colossalist” which was one of my best releases last year. A very impressive album with a very impressive sequence in the circle, let me show you what I read in the press release of the new album.
Following ‘THE COLOSSALIST’ and continuing the death-life commitment to their grave loss, VUKOVAR‘s next step in their obsessive memorial device to Simon Morris is ‘THE GREAT IMMUREMENT’. With the new, stable lineup, here with Jane Appleby (CERAMIC HOBS), the NeuPopAct have collided and colluded to now present their 9th LP and part two of the Eternity Ends Here triptych; the most ambitious thing attempted by the group and the most wrapped in turmoil. OTHER VOICES RECORDS, a label to match the group’s ambition, bring out this second CD in a planned series of releases in collaboration with world-renowned artist Andrzej Klimowski. VUKOVAR formed in a crumbling placefiller of a town in 2014. They were always dying and reorganized after cease to exist in 2019. Effete artists pretending to be northern hard cases pretending to be uniform fetishists in iconoclast drag. “Do not trust us; we are fragile stars.” –
“When Rome Falls” is the leading track of the album and it is a song so unique in its entire acoustics, like every single song of the album, it has no other resemblance, no other little-brother-song alike. Dare…
OK, that was a little spooky, right? Do not expect to hear it again in ‘The Great Immurement’ but you should expect to experience musings experimental with parts industrial and pieces no wave that all together form an amazing audition. Literally, this album may work as a concept LP (why? is not it finally?) as it needs you seamlessly from start to end. The opener “Your Icarus” is but an adventurous introduction with the rest being…one hell of an opus to listen to. How things are branched out in here is not something you hear often, but it is the necessity to them and for what they want you to hear in their work.
You will hear individual music creations that are deconstructed and completed with mastery, you will hear something similar with the scientific approach of a monumental record; If you went crazy with “Persepolis” by Iannis Xenakis without exaggeration you will discover an album that flirts with that mentality. Am I profane? No, I don’t think so as this album is a masterpiece! Another credit must go to The Brutalist House & The Ghosts In Their Machine and Phil Reynolds who handled the studio work, and as a sound engineer myself I’m gonna tell you my truth; I wouldn’t try to be involved in the mixing work, it needs tremendous commitment to the vision of the creators, it is not post-punk stuff, it needs you enchained to the purpose of the artists and it needs you to look for and to highlight pins in the straw…most respect to the whole team for the amazing work! Last, get ready for one totally impressive epilogue, finale; the last song is “The Great Immured And His Sea Of Love” where Vukovar finishes you with concise procedures within 12:12”, and when everything is over then it is most likely you will replay the whole album for a further study…no joke, the album is art for art like all similar masterpieces!!!
Keep up with Vukovar:
Written by Loud Cities’ Mike
