Review: Host – Star & System
Wanna know how to submit to The Void? Get in here. This is a how-to for embracing nothingness.
I first encountered Host several months ago while researching ambient/noise artists and immediately connected with the derelict, broken-world sounds of releases like Active Resistance and Null Pointer. Host’s sole member, Nathan Jenkins, has a brilliant talent for weaving deep, horrific and expansive tales of sound, then feeding them through a powerful/damaged transmitter that blasts away all but the strongest and most critical frequencies. Or, at least, that’s what it sounds like.
The result is a lush, foreboding symphony of chilly static layers, endless echoes, fragmented squelches and reverberating concussions that launches your imagination toward shadowy, unseen horrors lurking just beneath the surface of our everyday din.
The latest release, Star & System, expands on this template with four “ordeals” of varying intensity and malevolence. The name is especially appropriate, as these tracks have a decidedly sci-fi taste that attempt to articulate the sound of a reality crumbling and imploding around the listener. So in that vein, let’s take a quick look at each track.
First Ordeal | Plunging into the infinite. Witnessing the gravitational collapse of a star while station alarms blare overhead. A terrifying calm amidst chaos, panic and dread.
Second Ordeal | A communication from the abyss. A wordless yet cadenced language of ambiguous intent. The realization of an “other” in the unending blackness.
Third Ordeal | The inner workings of the continuum drive as it fails to properly fire. A fragmented journey through vast epochs of time and undiscovered dimensions.
Fourth Ordeal | Face to face with The Void. Arriving at the end of time. All things cease to exist. Embracing infinite absence while being ripped apart at the atomic level.
“The gross must pass through fire; let the fine be tried in intellect, and the lofty chosen ones in the highest. Thus ye have star & star, system & system; let not one know well the other!”
Star & System is available for streaming & FREE DOWNLOAD via bandcamp. Go get it right now. You won’t be disappointed.
(images via the Host facebook page)
