Khanate - Things Viral cover artwork

Rating: 0.4

Country: USA

Release Date: 2003

Track list:
1. Commuted 19:13
2. Fields 19:50
3. Dead 09:27
4. Too Close Enough to Touch 11:11

Total playing time 59:41

Band Website: Khanate

Khanate - Things Viral

Mynni Luukkainen - Vocals
Kosti Orbinski - Guitar
Pete Lapio - Guitar
Tomi Otsala - Bass, backing vocals
Timo Häkkinen - Drums

Among astrophysicists, one of the two dominant theories concerning the ultimate 'fate' of the known universe that stems from the "Big Bang" theory is that of the perpetually expanding universe. Basically, this theory entails that there is enough kinetic force still propelling the expansion of the universe since the supposed explosion of all that is from a singular, ultra-dense point to keep it expanding forever, to the point where there will not be enough gravity left to allow it to maintain structural integrity, meaning that eventually it will simply disintegrate and would no longer be a universe to speak of. The opposing theory suggests that instead, the universe is currently in the expansion stage of a continuous cycle of dilation and contraction, meaning that at some time in the far distant future the gravitational force from its center will overpower the aforementioned kinetic force, causing it to begin collapsing back into the single point whence it emerged.

What does this have to do with music? Well, consider that music is commonly defined as a: "The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre," or b: "Vocal or instrumental sounds possessing a degree of melody, harmony, or rhythm." Naturally, there's a disclaimer that music, as an artform, is an entirely subjective matter. However, if your definition of 'music' is close to the traditionally accepted one aforementioned, it may not be wise for you to listen to New York sludge monster Khanate's second album Things Viral, since its take on 'music' stretches the idea of what 'music' is, just as the theory of the perpetually expanding universe does with the idea of what the universe is. In other words, Khanate, whose 2001 eponymous debut roused much controversy because of its unheard-of sub-adagio tempos and its extremist, 'less is more' approach to depressive, claustrophobia-inducing doom, has managed to push that same envelope even further, creating vacant noisescapes with so much room devoted to mere between-note reverb that it can scarcely be considered 'music' at all. The maddening crawl of Khanate has been aggravated to the point of caustic self-parody on Things Viral, with the band transforming from a legitimate, crushingly heavy brand of minimalistic doom to an inaccessible and unnecessary novelty.

To put it bluntly, the pacing of Things Viral barely exceeds that of tectonic plate shifting. The opener "Commuted" is 19 minutes of pure hell: The first 6?+ minutes of this track is comprised of singular, cardiac-patient-heart-rhythm bass drum hits at 3-second intervals as the only means of keeping time for a series of seemingly ad-libed, single-note guitar strums, cymbal splashes [sparingly used] and Alan Dubin's resonant, twisted screeches. From 6:40 to 11:15, any sense of timing or sustained rhythm that held the first third of the 'song' together seems to go out the window, as the noise intensifies, with guitarist Stephen O'Malley [also of SUNN O))), Lotus Eaters and Burning Witch] begins to play a nauseating, throbbing C-F-D chord progression [yes, there is actually a sustained pattern there, but it's very hard to pick up unless you speed up the track] and Dubin continues waxing nutcase-poetic. After this segment, there's about a 3?-minute span in which the band just hits drums and strings at random like a jam band on a megadose of quaaludes, before returning to the sluggish crawl of the second section, cutting off abruptly at 19:13.51.

If the above description doesn't seem like it makes for much of an enjoyable listen, don't even bother checking out the rest of the album, since tracks 2-4 are more of the same, except with even less attention given to common musical devices like melody, harmony and rhythm. These are not so much songs as sonic abstractions passing for musical compositions. They all seem entirely improvised and created merely to provide a soundtrack to the voicing of some strange, bastardized deconstructionist philosophy in which all meaning is purely contrived and conjectural.

Likewise, Things Viral is 'music' in a purely conjectural sense. It would be interesting to see what kind of reaction such a record would have elicited in the early 1970s, when bands like King Crimson, Rush, Camel and Genesis were at the height of their popularity and viewed as the pinnacle of 'experimental' music thanks to their ability to combine many different [often diverging] styles of writing into seamless compositions with diverse instrumentation. The members of Khanate seem to pride themselves on the 'experimental' nature of their recordings as well, but an album like Things Viral could never be placed in the same league as Starless and Bible Black, Selling England By the Pound, Moon Madness or 2112 because rather than toying around with dangerous new styles of composition to thrill listeners, on this album Khanate simply takes an existing style of music and mangles it beyond recognition.

Is it different? Yes. Is it bizarre? Definitely. Does it make the audience uncomfortable [which is ostensibly the very objective that Khanate seems to set out to accomplish]? Well, if you're anything like me, it'll definitely make you squirm in one way or another. But is it a worthwhile musical venture for both musician and listener? Not unless you've got strong masochistic tendencies..

February 29th, 2007