SVEN PHALANX – NAVIGATION

3″ CDr, https://innerdemonsrecords.bandcamp.com/

This is not the first time the word phalanx has been mentioned in Vital Weekly, which is not strange because we all have several of them in our bodies. It’s also not the first time Sven Phalanx is mentioned in the Vital; colleague FdW reviewed a collaboration between Sven and Brainquake on Attenuation Circuit in 2022. That review ended with a most enjoyable release in all its grimness, even when it is outside my comfort zone and considers me interested: What does it take to take someone with his experience there? So, that earlier release is now on my want list, and I’ll try it at some point.

“Navigation” is a 5 track mini album, if I should label it in a way. Five tracks based on the music I listened to several years before, but instead of being stuck in the past, Sven is taking everything into the present. So, it does not sound like old stuff, even though you can hear that his background is in songs and structures from the past. This goes for everyone, I suppose because we’ve become what we’ve listened to, which is a good thing. Nice sounding use of guitar and feedback patterns, proper delay and loops; here and there may be an itsy bitsy overuse of pads, but that only emphasises a particular 90’s EBM feel. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, even though it’s also outside my comfort zone, as it was when I discovered power noise and drones.

It will not be long until someone ‘discovers’ Mr Phalanx, and he’ll get to develop his sound into something more danceable or creepy ambient. Both will be worth it.