theartsdesk eases into 2021 with a Disc of the Day title, Himalayan Dream Techno, that will be hard to beat over the next 12 months, even if it is a bit of a misnomer. For one thing, this album doesn’t hail from the Himalayas, it’s also not techno, and anyone who dreams like this must wake up every morning in an unpleasant cold sweat. Instead, New Age Doom’s sophomore album is a collection of twisted instrumental sounds that flow into each other, while building into giddy caldrons of menacing, otherworldly vibes before bursting into howling tsunamis of feedback.
For Himalayan Dream Techno, the Canadian duo of Eric J Breitenbach and Greg Valou have linked up with Tim Lefebvre, of Bowie’s Blackstar band and Gregory Macdonald (aka Cola Wars) for a disc of dense atmospheric drones that are disorientating, hallucinatory and not a little claustrophobic. Opening track, “Acoustoelectric Invocation” may kick off with the chime of temple bells but it isn’t long before swirling chaos takes hold. “Mountains of Mist” brings a spaced-out ambience that is anything but laidback, while “Space for Ghosts” has something of Captain Willard’s bad trip to Do Lung Bridge in Apocalypse Now deep in its hypnotic cinematic vibes. Elsewhere there are shades of the Bug’s Concrete Desert collaboration with ambient metalist Dylan Carlson of Earth, Deafkids’ abrasive polyrhythmic grooves and Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s neo-prog menace, especially on the jittery and feral sounds of the title track.
Things eventually come to an end with the extended “Aetheric Avalanche”, which breaks like an untethered sonic storm out of the speakers before fading into a bleak silence. For while Himalayan Dream Techno may be something of an acquired taste that’s unlikely to bother the upper echelons of the album charts, it’s an unsettling piece of art, mimicking the forces of nature at their most destructive, that demands to be heard in one unbroken sitting.
