When a piece of art arrives in your life without much context, you go with what little information you have. In the case of the mysterious Soaplands project, released on No Rent Records, the first clues lie in the album art. A commissioned piece by Japanese manga artist Shintaro Kago, master of Ero Guro, a genre of manga characterized by its focus on sexual corruption and decadence, and known for his disturbing take on the deconstruction of the human form, one is immediately confronted with images both erotic and disturbing; a sickly sweet overindulgence of the senses that repulse and disturb, and yet on some deeper, more visceral level, pull you in with the guilty allure of the taboo.
Going hand in hand with the stunning yet confrontational art of Shintaro Kago, track titles like The Birds Above Methadone Mile and Serotonin Jacuzzi Lust seem to evoke images of a world of pure, almost narcotic hedonism, where indulgence borders on irresponsibility, and ecstasy treads the parameters of self-destruction, a theme which translates through the music as well. Album opener, The Birds Above Methadone Mile, beckons initially with the oddly comforting warble of a distant synth, pouring over the listener like some thick, viscous liquid and carrying them downstream in it's softly inebriating currents, before blasts of static bleed into the mix like a corruption, stirring the waters with it's tainted presence.
Serotonin Jacuzzi Lust, laying suspended on a thick grey cloud of drones and industrial buzzes, acts as a sort of gradual acclimation to the claustrophobic, choking atmospheres of Techniques of Religious Ecstasy, which sounds like the manic, altered-state ramblings of someone in communion with either a higher power, or their own personal insanities and delusions. Wave after wave of noise and distortion eviscerates everything in its path, carrying a thick mass of trash and debris towards the albums central, and final piece, the crushing 8 minute drone monolith Godmode / Potential Immortality / Pure Pleasure. Bringing to mind the out of body long-form tone experiments of Nurse With Wounds drone masterpiece Soliloquy for Lilith, ghostly, metallic screeches curl upon themselves like steel shavings, razor sharp threads unspooling with each rhythmic scrape, soon overtaken by the incessant buzz of power-tools and machinery, and concluding with the nearly overwhelming accumulation of grinding, blackened noise.
In just 16 deceivingly short minutes, Soaplands manages to feel less like a leisurely visit to the spa than some sort of mental endurance test, a complex and rewarding world of noise and textures that, like the come-down after any intense pleasure, leaves you disoriented, exhausted, gasping for breath and - giving the project name a whole new meaning - in need of a long, cold shower.