Monster of the Absolute

Paik

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 9, 2006)
• Original Release Date: May 9, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Strange Attractors
• ASIN: B000F9RLWG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #233,782 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Paik make the kind of slow, drop-D guitar sludge that alienated suburban kids have been getting stoned to since Black Sabbath entered the fray...a few hours wallowing alone with records like this one can be cathartic in its own way, like pushing the `pause' button on your life, and it's sure a lot better for you than heroin." - PITCHFORMEDIA

"Instrumental power trio Paik certainly don't hold anything back...a massively low spate of dense drone-scapes saturated with feedback, low-pitched beats and squalid guitars. If Hawkwind's imprenetrable space-chug mixed with Big Black's grating corruption resembles your idea of a good time, dig in." - SKYCRAPER

"...Almost painfully methodical, yet retains an air of mystery and triumph usually reserved for soulless arena-rock bombast...a masterpiece of noise-based songwriting, garrulous drumming and pinprick bass notes, often redolent of Mogwai's crowning achievement, Young Team." - SPLENDID

Much of downtown Detroit exists in an advanced state of decay, its blue-collar past and collection of pre-Depression skyscrapers often referred to as an American Acropolis. For Paik, the very epicenter of this deterioration is precisely where they call home. From the erosion of concrete and steel comes a certain inspiration, a parable that has fueled Paik's ongoing quest for beauty amongst ugliness and chaos. Evolving from their embryonic shoegaze-inspired melee into sprawling, heavy stoner/psych/drone hybrids as evidenced on 2003's epic Satin Black, Paik have achieved an uncanny ability to completely shred the atmosphere while coaxing out blissfully sonorous melodies from their thunderous caterwaul. Pulling back the reins just a bit, Paik funnel their supersonic cyclones into a tightly focused box of thunder with Monster of the Absolute, their greatest balancing act of melody and dissonance to date. Utilizing the tried-and-true power trio format, Paik are certainly not at a loss for conjuring up blistering volume and powerful rhythms. It is their particular incantations, evoking warm melodic portraits amongst a firestorm, which truly set them apart. Few bands are as adept at evoking the inherent symmetry in otherwise clashing emotions as Paik, and it is this wedding of simultaneous sonic disparity (i.e. without the alternating loud/quiet crutch utilized by so many post-Slint/Mogwai instrumental acts) that is so breathtaking. Previous outings stretched out their explorations into lengthy, repetitious exercises but with Monster of the Absolute, Paik have honed things down to a much more concise, refined format. The result is some of the finest and most accessible cinematic pummel of their career.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You won't know where you are..., September 6, 2006

By	Nathan B. Hyatt "Psychonaut" (San Jose, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Part horror-film soundtrack, part meditation on the inherent ironies in pursuing the simple life, and part end-times mantra, Monster of the Absolute is about embracing death and finding the life within it. Bass melodies buried under the white noise of dissonant guitar loops, a drummer who hits things with regularity that most drummers don't even have in their kits, Paik are never afraid to chart their own territory, and while each release has seen a significant step beyond the previous, with Monster of the Absolute Paik creates the sonic collage they have always been striving for.

Rhythms range from the dirge-like to nearly booty-shaking on one track, which is new ground for Paik. Solid bass playing is often the only familiar element for the uninitiated, while the guitarist churns out noise like flaming whips scourging the backs of hellhounds pressed into Satan's army, or black iron trains chugging to the underworld with their latest haul of souls. The drummer is the most flamboyant and dynamic of the anti-rock trio, signaling your arrival at the end of time with cymbals and crashes that announce the opening of gates you'd wish forever sealed. In addition to that harsh metalwork, the drums also maintain a steady pulse that energizes and drives the wall of noise atop it.

Paik have turned the art of dissonance guitars into a meaningful and often triumphant wail, and they manage to achieve more with their strings than human voices ever could, no matter how tormented they might be.

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful decay, April 27, 2009

By	0=0 (Earth) - See all my reviews

When I saw these guys open for Windy and Carl a while ago, I was absolutely blown away and mesmerized. They really took my ears by surprise, for three unassuming-looking musicians. Their stuff on disc is no different either - heavy, thick, atmospheric and hypnotic are several words which come to mind when hearing this. I wonder how bands like Mogwai, who've put out some very mediocre material lately, get far more attention than this amazing American band from Detroit, who might fall somewhere in that category of atmospheric instrumental rock. This is truly grunge, though in no way related to that genre from Seattle. Ok, as someone described them earlier - "sludge" might be more suiting a term, and how beautiful it is. Give Paik a listen if you're looking for something to get the adrenaline pumping and the mind melting. There's a lot of heart to be found, beating from beneath the greasy, grimy gears of this Detroit rock monster.