Spectral Empire - Black Shark

  • Share
  • If prizes were given out to music acts for linguistic accuracy, you'd be hard-pressed not to want to award Spectral Empire for naming the track that comes on the A-side to their newest 12-inch, "Black Shark." The track roils along, slithering and slow, with more than a hint of menace to it. The melody to the track is a hypnotic on-beat plod of chords that lock you further into the indelible groove set out. It matches the story attached to this release, captured on the discogs page of the release, detailing a nuclear submarine crew with "cracked and twisted into jaggedly sharp dents and blackened metallic bruises, [a result] of a disastrous rendezvous with an unidentified submarine...lying wrecked and silent on the sea bed below." The Spectral Assault Mix of "KM-50" is even slower, but just as potent. It's hard to understate its enormous power when played at full volume. Cars race by as lurching industrial machinery endlessly build unseen goods as a never-ending beat pounds its way into your belly. It's hard to think of a track suffused with more portent that's been released this year. Which is why Château Flight's mix of "Innerfearence" on the flip comes as such as a relief. Sure, it operates at a slow tempo, but the cosmic synths that permeate the proceedings lighten things up considerably. (Even if a variety of voices are left hanging, distorted beyond recognition.) It's an airy complement to what has come before—even if that's not saying much.
  • Tracklist
      A Black Shark AA KM-50 (Spectral Assault Mix) B Innerfearence (Château Flight Remix)
RA