Novatron

NEW RISING SUN - Novatron [CSRCD28]. Available from Cold Spring Records, 8 Wellspring, Blisworth, Northants., NN7 3EH, England.

YET more dynamic packaging from Justin Mitchell’s increasingly professional label, this time with an inscribed purple disc and groovy six-panel foldout depicting the majestic and cosmic power of periodical obscuration. Put simply, the black sun has got his hat on and he’s coming out to play. NOVATRON, comprised of Anthony Di Franco (formerly of SKULLOWER, AX and RAMLEH) and Noise wizard Kevin Laska, began in 1997 and over a period of two years became more and more committed to achieving new and innovative forms of sonic perfection by utilising the latest equipment and sound techniques. The opening track, Kore, is a surging powerhouse in which images of leaping prominences and fiery sun-spots abound. A sudden mid-way switch to a steadily pulsating beat takes us into Axis One, where a revolving heatwave of spheroid electronics marks time. Meanwhile, by sheer contrast Inamorata (another word for love) is like a deserted space-station in a galactic library, a place where besotted listeners can capture for themselves the blazing vapours and gases of the distant sun as it comes glinting through the cabin porthole. Alloy/Sorcerer must surely relate to the alchemical processes which blend calcium, magnesium, iron and sodium together in a volatile cocktail of energy, creating a joyously high-pitched vortex of oscillating ear-feed. Total Mass Retain is like a voltaic rendering of something by Gustav Holst and would not be out of place in Kubrick’s ‘2001 - A Space Odyssey’, resembling as it does a yawning chasm of dissonance in which the relative emptiness of the Earth’s solar system is shackled to the chaotic turbulence of the invincible sun. Our next foray into the realms of radioactive electromagnetism is Cobra-Bora. A semi-rustling 15,000 degrees centigrade of Noise heaven where a shivering underlay of throbbing discord brings us gasping to the penultimate eclipse.