Being scared can be as active as feeling safe. Just ask the millions of goths flooding darkened dancefloor halls across the world. For those that want morbid rock attached to mysterious, unanswearable questions, Output 1:1:1 may just be the gloomy artists that they’ve been seeking.
The “Rolling Corpse Pathetique” rings out almost like pieces of found recordings that were waiting patiently to be found in some haunted alleyway. Album opener “Ruined Piano” plays like an ambitious horror-film soundtrack piece. It’s a characteristic that can be heard throughout the record.
“You & Yours” could be the sound of ghosts making electro-driven hard-rock in some distant parts located between heaven & hell. Little of what Output 1:1:1 do is straightforward. Most of it is challenging. Yet, nearly all of the clashing sounds found on the record are marvelously seductive.
Conflict is at the heart of nearly every composition here. “Oblast” introduces tension through creepy, whispered vocals and sounds that resemble creaky hinges. The ambitious and poetic “Man Godiva & The Rolling Corpse” resolves that tension with what appears to be a murderous ritual preserved to tape.
Album closer “Howl” sounds like the rumbling of a hearse making its way through the cobble streets of Mitteleuropa with all of the victims who’ve unwillingly contributed to the recording being locked up in the back.
File this under “goth” or “horror music” if you must. But there’s little here that follows such a simple formula as to allow for simple categorization. Output 1:1:1 have a unique sound that owes more to avant-garde exploration than to Bela Lugosi’s posing.
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