Pink Smoke Vinyl
In the world of Pharaoh Overlord, little is ever as it seems. This band is less comprised of tricksters or mischief makers than fearless obsessives whose musical instincts take twisted and wild pathways. Now, fresh from forays into Italo-disco and synth-pop, they have thrown another still more mighty statement of intent into the universe.
Louhi is a thunderous and majestic epic of joyful repetition and earth-shaking power. A two-track minimalist-rock monolith forged from guitars, synths and hurdy-gurdy, and constructed around a single riff and melodic idea, it builds and evolves to fearsome pinnacles of elemental intensity.
Tyneside maverick Richard Dawson, who most recently collaborated with Jussi and Tomi on his album Henki with Circle, was equally keen to get on board, but also keen to emphasise that his contribution essentially consists of one chord. “This was very exciting for me because I'm used to playing a lot of notes and having to remember a lot of words but here I just concentrated on one guitar strum, and getting that just right. For my part, I wanted to bring something like the atmosphere of a caravan - ripped canvas, rickety wheels, ropes, jangling bells and dust.”
Whatever routes Pharaoh Overlord take to their destination, a common theme is the consciousness-warping singularity of the riff and the mantra, and the temporal disorientation this can provoke mirrors the broader designs of this record.