MARANATA: Ugly Euphoria

There is the admonition 'run, don't walk' about Ugly Euphoria by the Norwegian noise duo Maranata. With more than a dozen releases to their name, the electronics of Jon Wesseltoft and Dag Stiberg's saxophones create a total onslaught of sound. The encouragement to run instead of walking is not to avoid this recording but to get a head start because the sound is ultimately gaining on you.

Maranata, while primarily a duo, has invited guests to join their noise fests, including Sayaka Himeno from the Japanese post-punk trio Nisennenmondai, Maja S.K. Ratkje, and metal musician Kjetil Manheim. For this session, mastered by Lasse Marhaug, Wesseltoft and Stiberg add the alto saxophone of Martín Escalante. The Mexico-born artist has released a string of solo free jazz and noise discs and has recorded with the likes of Otomo Yoshihide and Weasel Walter.

Their music, like that of Borbetomagus, takes no prisoners. From the opening moments of "Rust Assembly," with its stuttering electronics, Stiberg and Escalante's two-saxophone attack shrieks and skronks without letup. I repeat, without letup. Even the pause between "Rust Assembly" and the second track, "Petrol Haze," is naught. The sound is not 'shock and awe,' but 'shock and ouch,' depending on the volume level of your playback. It is not white noise at the lowest of levels; it is more like Android mice running amok.

At normal to high volume, the bombardment is total. The ever-churning electronics overtake the saxophone as "Petrol Haze" ends, giving way to "Ambulance Riot" and the title track. Both give us the noise equivalent of a call-and-response approach between the electronics storm and the saxophone attack. This is not your grandfather's improvising, but it may be the soundtrack to our dystopian age.

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