Review: What Is Real? by Black Sadhu

 

Berlin based Black Sadhu grabbed my interest almost immediately when they described their music as a "hypnotic and intense ritual of Drone and Doom". Sounds right up my street! And they didn't disappoint with their latest release, the three track album What Is Real?, in which the band create a vastly dense atmosphere with their crushingly heavy meditations in doom. Luckily though, there is more to this band than just sonic weight.

Berlin itself is a sprawling city with an atmosphere that never quite escapes the industrialism of it's time as a divided city. It's also a city full of culture and humanity, and amongst the concrete and iron it has an almost immeasurable number of underground secrets to discover; from clubs in old electrical plants and bank vaults, to art spaces in old prisons and cinemas in punk squats, there is an irrevocable sense of excitement about the city. I find this same sense of dark adventure in Black Sadhu's music, the same thrill of finding something intriguing in a place you don't expect.

The opening track Ednabaras starts with a swathe of psychedelic synth drones before the guitars kick in and the track really begins in an epic fashion. It sounds massive right from the beginning, the Al Cisneros style vocals are wrapped in a cavernous echo and the whole thing moves slowly from very guitar heavy moments to more synth focused parts. The track develops a nice repetitive tension-and-release from the doom into the psychedelia and back again, expanding and contracting between riffs and steadily enveloping the listener in it's dark glory. The drums sound surprisingly direct - I almost expect drums in this kind of music to be drowning in reverb, but I actually find the more natural tone gives the track a strong focus that can easily be lost in the more psychedelic styles of doom.

The title track kicks off with some fabulously harsh guitars, that lovely sound you get when you put a single-coil pickup through some high gain vintage fuzz pedal. The riff itself is very Electric Wizard in it's melody, and there is a wonderful simplicity in the way the track builds up into some classic doom vibes. Even as the riffs get heavier and the bass becomes more intense, the guitar sound doesn't lose that grit and aggression. The vocals are more Jus Oborn in timbre this time and it suits the track perfectly. The song breaks down briefly into some psychedelic drones before launching into the main riff again, adding in a dark bluesy guitar solo, a barrel full of phase-shifters and some creepy as hell whispering vocals in the background. As the track goes into it's final leg the it becomes more traditionally psychedelic, with the guitar melody sounding like a sitar and the bass upping the groove massively. It's a fascinating way to finish this song, and it makes even more sense once the final track begins.

The final track is self-titled, and opens up with instrumentation inspired by South Asian Carnatic music but purveying the same dark atmosphere which has run throughout this album. Soon enough a heavy guitar and bass riff comes into play and the track slowly builds into something absolutely gargantuan in proportion. The guitar sounds gradually start to overtake everything and the bass becomes utterly crushing in the ears. At it's peak it is totally enthralling, and it soon starts to climb down and the sitars, woodwinds and flutes begin to regain their breathing space until the sonic hypnosis slowly fades away. It's such am enormous journey that when the track ends you're left with a silence that feels as loud as the music itself.

The three tracks here are all very unique, but there is an intangible thread that runs throughout the record. Perhaps it can be found in the dark and brooding melodies, perhaps it can be found in the moments where every sonic space is filled by a different heavy element. Or perhaps it can't be found at all. Perhaps this thread is something that isn't metaphysical or spiritual, but something that appears when you get a group of musicians so clearly in tune with each other as Black Sadhu are, and give them an environment that allows their creativity to flourish organically. For all of it's mesmerising psychedelia this is a very human record, and it is that which makes this album so utterly brilliant.

Listen to What Is Real? by Black Sadhu on Bandcamp