010 - Basements - Tartaria

FLAP.  A word that strikes fear into the hearts of men, women, and children worldwide.  And for those whose hearts are full of cowardice and duplicity, it’s a genre observed with trepidation and fear.  But lo, should you gaze into the abyss, the abyss shall in turn gaze into you.

Stare into the abyss I did on Basement’s debut album Tartaria, and against all odds I found something that I enjoyed.  In my own musical journey I attempted to get into FLAP, knowing that it is mostly a joke genre.  Even then I couldn’t bring myself to like it outside of a few sections of songs here and there.  I was very disappointed after about a month of trying that there was nothing in the genre for me to gravitate towards.  

It was a few weeks later that I stumbled upon this album.  I almost gave up on it immediately when I heard the vocals come in on From Mud.  However, there was something that stood out about it.  The vocals are the hyper-saturated vocoded to hell and back mess that is synonymous with the genre, but the music was actual music.  Enjoyable music!

The project was birthed from a shared love that Broken_Canyon and HKE had of Tartaria/mudflood conspiracy videos.  “(HKE) spent hours watching these ‘documentaries’ every night. We were both pretty obsessed. At some point, we started discussing making a sound collage-type album that eventually morphed into the flap-rock that became TARTARIA.”

True to Broken_Canyon’s description, the album offers a buffet of musical genres to sort through.  Don’t like a song? Try the next one, it will sound completely different.  Around the World has an indie rock feel to it, not too dissimilar from the White Stripes. The Ghosts in the Basement stands out as hugely cinematic.  Crawling Through The Flood combines many elements from different genres to create a melancholy tone.  

Each song adds its own distinctive tone, with the one constant being the vocals.  HKE handles most of the vocal duties with Broken_Canyon contributing the spoken word portion of Constantinople.  If you have heard FLAP vocals you know what to expect, with the one exception being The System Will Fail.

This track differs from the rest of the album in almost every aspect.  Being the only track written solely by Broken_Canyon, everything is toned back and more nuanced.  The vocals are still vocoded, but now feature a haunting, ethereal quality that fits the music perfectly.  It acts as both a break from the guitar oriented tracks preceding it and a segway to the more electronic driven tracks following.  

Obviously this album will not be for everyone.  Your enjoyment of it is directly correlated to your tolerance of the vocals.  They are an acquired taste to put it lightly, and they often clash with the music.  It's through the vocals, though, that this album forges its identity.  Without that binding element the album is just a collection of well written songs that have little to do with each other.  

If the past me read this next paragraph I think I would have disowned myself.  It is my firm belief that this album is elevated by the FLAP elements.  They are distinctive and add a sense of character to the album that would be lost without their inclusion.  Much like other inaccessible genres - noise rock, harsh noise, and extreme metal - once the listener is acclimated to the alien components the album can be enjoyed to the fullest extent.   

The duo have thrown down the gauntlet.  Who amongst us will pick it up and accept the challenge? Come, join me and stare into the abyss and FLAP into the darkness.

Random Tidbit That I Have No Idea Where To Put It In The Review
The singing heard at the end of Around the World and Crawling Through the Flood are some of the only recordings of traditional Tartarian singing.  

Equipment Used
Broken Canyon used a PRS SE guitar directly into my audio interface, with an eBow, which is a magnetic sustaining device.

Acknowledgements
Big thank you to Broken_Canyon for taking the time to talk to me about the album.  Additional thanks to Ian Sarringar for introducing me to this album.   As always thanks to Blissmonkey for editing and promotion.