Gravitoni - Pan Sonic [2010]

"the Great God Pan had become a modern icon [for] the recurrence of primal urges at the heart of the civilised world"

- Rob Young, Electric Eden

"one ov thee original meanings ov thee word pan was drowning, whilst panic can mean an unreasonable fear leading to excessive and extravagant behaviour"

- Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Godstar Thee Director's Cut [booklet]

"And I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend
Everlasting, world without end,
Mannikin, maiden, meanad, man,
In the might of pan.
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Io Pan!"

 - Aleister Crowley, extract from Hymn to Pan

Yo Pan Sonic! No soothing electronica or lush soundscapes. Instead, the mesmeric demiurge; raw powered primeval electric spark moulded into sound. The might of natural wavelength rhythms; ripped extremes of pitch and volume. Post-industrial (Einstürzende Neubauten, Throbbing Gristle), post-lapsarian search for primal essence in the maw electrick; hum of generators, harsh fizz of white noise; drowned in black hot metal.

Calling time on seventeen years of unadulterated electronics, Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen lay Pan Sonic to rest with Gravitoni. No softening of agenda in the finale bulletin. An arsenal of brutal beats and lucid tones; a landslide of skull basting bass hits and molten silicon slurry; sheet metal noise and punishing volume; beats that hammer the brain into pulpy mass; nightmarish drones.

But noise is only a part of the story.  Microsounds; floating eerie waves; strange clicks and creaks around cosmological silence; sustained glassy notes; subterranean drip and echo; dark ambience, and a slow slow black heartbeat.

A thrilling legacy. Fade to test tone..........................

Oddi wrth y brawd
gravitas