Civilistjävel!

Following last year's spirited ‘Järnnätter’, this new one funnels Civilistjävel!’s illusory ambient dub to a gaseous flicker of drone and faint rhythms. If its predecessor was informed by practitioners like Biosphere and Pete Namlook, this one takes its cues from a different but related subcultural nook, pulling sonic concepts from illbient, 20th Century minimalism and kosmische, like some psychedelic mixup of CC Hennix, DJ Olive and early Tangerine Dream.

The highlight is 'Louhivesi', weaving around Cucina Povera's spine-tingling Finnish vocals. On her solo material, she uses her voice like vapor, looping it casually around her viscous compositions - here, Civilistjävel! treats it completely differently, turning the volume and reverb way up and harmonising with a sound that's in synch with vintage Dead Can Dance or early Enya. We don't say that lightly, by the way. Crushed, distorted kicks and pitch-bent flutes suggest a distant pagan ritual in snow-covered landscapes desperate for the embrace of Spring - it's magical music that captures a certain musical zeitgeist without leaning to heavily into the Medieval/just intonation school of contemporary fetishisation.